


In Another Lifetime

by paintandcoffee



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Co-workers, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Requited Love, Requited Unrequited Love, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love, domestic dianetti, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2019-08-19 06:05:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16528862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintandcoffee/pseuds/paintandcoffee
Summary: Gina and Rosa never expected to fall undeniably, head over heels in love with each other, but they did.





	1. old movies

The precinct was almost empty. Terry had taken the day off to spend the day with his 8-month-old baby girls, Charles was out collecting evidence for a case, and Jake and Amy were on a stakeout. Hitchcock and Scully had disappeared for lunch three hours ago and were yet to return. Rosa was half-heartedly filling in paperwork for her last open case when Gina emerged from the break room with two coffees, putting one mug on the edge of Rosa’s desk without even having to ask. There was an unspoken rule where the seemingly narcissistic civilian administrator / self-proclaimed dance legend and the scary, closed-off detective would take turns in getting each other coffee during their long shifts. 

The room was quiet, with the expectation of background noise from other floods, while the two women drank their black coffees. By the time Rosa’s had cooled enough for her to take proper sips without burning her tongue, Gina had somehow drained her entire cup and was dramatically half humming, half singing to the tune of All I Want for Christmas Is You.

“It’s June, Gina.” Rosa frowned, leant back in her chair and looked over at Gina sat behind her desk.

“It’s never too early for a bit of Mariah Carey, my dear, dear acquaintance.” Gina responded.  
“And you’re wearing a cardigan with a reindeer pattern.”

“would you believe me if I were to say they were wolves with crowns of branches?”

“No.”

Gina wasn’t the sort to back down if it meant making her more human. As a child, she had adopted a black cat and kept it for three years to help convince her classmates she was a witch, despite being somewhat allergic and being a definite dog person. Gina could have easily carried on pretending to be oblivious – something she had most of the time at work – but she didn’t feel like it around Rosa. Rosa was a total badass and most people around the office feared her, whether they admitted it or not, and Gina craved Rosa’s respect, something she did not openly admit, yet her brain was telling her to open up to the other woman.

“Okay, you got me,” Gina dramatically raised her hands in defeat, spinning in her desk chair slightly, Rosa raised an eyebrow in response, pretending to disapprove of the dramatics. In all seriousness, she did approve. She loved turning towards Gina during discussions of events throughout the day, waiting for her look up from her iPhone and stir the pot. “There’s this bar I’ve been to a couple of times that shows movies every so often, and they’re playing It’s a Wonderful Life tonight. It’s this festive suicide movie where- “

“I know what It’s a Wonderful Life is, Gina. It’s a fantastic movie. I like old movies.”

“Rosa Diaz is into old movies, there’s another fact for Jake’s list.”

“You tell Jake and you’ll be drinking alone.” Gina tilted her head, triggering an elongated response from Rosa. “I doubt you’ll find anyone else who’s willing to go and watch a Christmas movie with you in June.”

“I didn’t ask you to come.” Gina pointed out. She was trying not to say too much because, for reasons she was not yet sure of, Gina really wanted Rosa to go with her. Like, really, really wanted her to. Ten minutes earlier, inviting her mysterious, dark-haired colleague had never really been on the table, but Gina’s fast pace brain was now going crazy with fantasies of her and Rosa becoming best friends and watching black and white movies together after work every night. 

“Is it within walking distance?” Rosa asked.

“Yeah, girl.” Gina replied slowly without looking up from her screen, poorly multitasking holding a conversation and scrolling through her twitter feed. 

“Okay, cool.”

Gina returned to her twitter war against a sixteen-year-old who said she tweeted too much, and Rosa returned to her never-ending pile of paperwork. She wished she had the paperwork loving mentality of Amy on days like this, but at least on this specific day she had something to look forward to. Rosa was a private person and loved her own company but spending a few hours with Gina - who always had a lot to say and broke Rosa’s drinking in silence rule – just felt like the right way to spend a Friday night. The two women smiled to themselves after finalising their plans, both too proud check if the other had the same expression on their face.

Two coffee breaks and five hours later the precinct desks were all occupied again. There was half an hour left of the shift and everyone was organising their cases before finishing for the weekend. Terry was eating a vanilla and honey yoghurt at his desk with one hand while slowly typing with the other, while Charles was in McGintley’s office attempting to have him approve a few office food testing parties before the captain’s retirement in four months’ time. Jake and Amy were arguing about their latest bet, which Rosa suspected was a lot more intense than their previous gambles. Not that Rosa took interest in their pettiness, of course.

“Hey Amy,” Gina interrupted the squabbling partners. They acted like an old married couple despite being two young, single NYPD detectives. “maybe when you lose this bet you’ll finally lose your virginity!”

Rosa tried her best to hide her smirk by sinking her face into her hand, but she and Gina locked eyes for a moment and her secret was out. 

“Shut up, Gina!” Amy snapped, “I’d rather be a virgin forever – which I’m not – than sleep with Jake!”

“Mm okay, my sweet, naïve Amy, but you owe me twenty dollars when you eventually sleep with him.” Gina grinned, which was returned with no spoken reply, just Amy rolling her eyes, huffing, then returning to tidying her desk.

Once there were only ten minutes left of the shift, Gina stood up and started collecting her stuff. With McGintley as captain everyone could pretty much come and go as they please. Rosa couldn’t remember a day where Gina had both arrived and left on time on the same day.

“Au revoir, colleagues.” Gina’s French accent was something else, if something else was a person who had never heard the accent before in their life yet still tried to recreate it. “You coming, Rosa?”

“Where are you two going?” Jake asked. Rosa blanked, not wanting to open up about her after work activities, even though Jake was probably one of her closest friends. Jake was close with both Rosa and Gina and Rosa knew his curiosity was natural, but even in her early thirties, she had not yet grasped the concept of talking about yourself to friends.

“We’re going on a hot date! I just hope she likes me and asks me to be her prom date and we live happily ever after and I become America’s first female president.” Gina joked, twirling one of her curls around her index finger of her left hand; the one that wasn’t carrying her bulky pink purse. Gina knew her relationship with Gina was purely platonic but couldn’t help the way her heart skipped a beat when the word ‘date’ slipped out of Gina’s mouth. It wasn’t important, she decided. Like most of her feelings, she pushed it back to the back of her head, along with the unsuccessful past cases and the way her heart sometimes felt like it was expanding when she saw puppies. 

 

-

 

It took about half an hour to walk to the bar. Rosa thought she could have probably made it in half that time with her default powerwalk, but she consciously slowed down to make sure Gina could cope with her shorter legs and more carefree walking pace. Rosa didn’t mind one bit, though. It was a warm evening and she thought it was kind of nice taking her time. Although she lived in the heart of Brooklyn mere minutes from the precinct, she was usually too focused on whizzing around on her motorbike to actually go on a stroll and look around at the beautiful city they lived in. The two walked closely alongside each other, Gina’s bag acting as a barrier between their arms, and chatted for the whole journey. Well, Gina chatted, Rosa listened. 

“I’ve noticed I’m not the only one dressed for the occasion, Rosie.” Gina smirked, pausing for a moment to look Rosa up and down. 

“Shut up. It’s not like I’m wearing an actual Santa Claus sweater.”

“don’t be defensive, I approve.”

Rosa had worn her maroon skinny jeans with a black t-shirt and one of her black leather jackets – the one she kept a piece of barbed wire in the right pocket of – for work that day, but before leaving she’d swapped her shirt for an army green one she had in the back of her locker. She didn’t exactly look like a walking, talking Christmas tree, but Gina was impressed anyway.

The bar wasn’t how Rosa was expecting it to look. For some reason, she had imagined it to look run down with grimy wooden panelling covering every surface, but for the most part, it wasn’t. The bar had a sort of industrial look to it with recycled, eco-friendly looking countertops and table tops. Before Rosa could completely take in the design of the dimly lit room, Gina grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to a Sofa near the side of the room that faced a large, empty wall, which she assumed would have the movie projected onto it sooner or later. 

“Guard this sofa with your life, okay? This is where my friend, Carlene, predicted I’d find true love! The next day I won $4 on a scratch card and bought a new lipstick that truly showed me the meaning of self-love, and my life has never been the same since. It’s a lucky chair. I’m going to get us some beers, so don’t move.” Gina blew a kiss in Rosa’s direction before doing what could only be described as an unfortunate pirouette and disappearing to the bar. 

Even in her almost colourful outfit, Rosa’s menacing glare and crossed arms managed to keep other Christmas loving weirdos away from the seats. It was either that or that nobody wanted these seats. Probably the latter, Rosa thought, as the blue velvet sofa was pretty fat from the front and didn’t have a great view.

“I got us three each, so we don’t have to keep getting up.” Gina announced, looking proud of herself and somehow carrying three open beer bottles in each hand without spilling any of their contents.  
“excellent plan.” Rosa nodded. She then went on to help Gina set the bottles down on the little coffee table in front of them and moved along to give Gina more space to sit.

There was probably no need for Rosa to budge up, she realised a third of the way in, as Gina apparently didn’t keep to herself much. Gina sank back into the sofa at an angle, her cardigan sleeve against Rosa’s leather sleeve while her head rested on the taller woman’s shoulder and her feet rested on the table. Rosa didn’t seem to mind, and she was too busy appreciating the film and the company to worry about how comfortable she was in a position that would usually be miles and miles out of her comfort zone. 

The movie ended and their bottled emptied. There was an initial second where Rosa felt dread, as finishing a Christmas movie was usually followed by her having to play Pictionary with her upbeat, giggly family around the fireplace, but then she remembered it was summer and she was at a bar drinking beers with no other than Gina Linetti, who was coincidentally giving Rosa’s family a run for their money with her giggles after her alcohol consumption. 

“You hungry?” Gina turned to ask her friend. She hadn’t realised how close she’d got to Rosa and blushed slightly. Making Rosa feel uncomfortable was the last thing Gina wanted, but everything seemed fine.

“I could eat.”

“They sell pretty great burgers here. So great that I considered making Boyle try one to prove I have taste, but then I had nightmares of me bumping into him out of work.” 

“Burgers and another beer sounds great.” Rosa gave her best attempt as a casual smile, which resulted in just her cheek muscles tensing. 

The two women sat in a comfortable silence at the bar while they waited for their burgers to arrive. It wasn’t really silent; the music was just much louder near the bar and would have struggled to hear each other if they tried to make small talk. When their food arrived, Gina got up and signalled for Rosa to follow her across the room to some seats far from the blasting speakers. 

Rosa hummed in appreciation after taking her first mouthful. She didn’t know if her hungriness added to it in any way, but it was the best burger she had tasted in years, “Boyle would go crazy for these things, I can see why you kept them to yourself.” 

“See, I am full of surprises, Miss Diaz.” Gina winked dramatically.

“Your surprises are usually just annoying at work, though.” Rosa lied. The days Gina had off were so boring and Gina’s random outbursts were what got her through long days.

There was a momentary pause in the conversation where Gina’s face looked serious for the first time since their conversation at lunchtime where Rosa talked her way into coming on this night out.

“I’m sorry if I was a bit too much at the precinct today, with the whole fake dating thing. I was only messing around, obviously, but I know you’re a pretty private person and-“ Gina started.

“It’s fine, Gina,” Rosa places her hand on Gina’s forearm to stop her from rambling on and on. “It was funny, plus it gave us an excuse to leave without admitting we were going out to see an ancient Christmas movie.”

“Shut up, tonight was heaven for you.” Gina teased.

Rosa responded with a roll of her eyes. Maybe her heaven was watching movies and spending time with her unlikely friend, Gina Linetti. Yes, they bonded over their impatience regarding people at work and went out with the squad to Shaw’s every other Friday, but this was different. 

“So, do you think we’ll end up spending time outside of work together again? Gina asked with an exaggerated Italian accent. Rosa frowned in confusion. Gina sighed. “saying things with accents is a thing me and Jake started doing when we were, like, ten and wanting to say things that made us feel awkward. He’s the weird one, not me. Anyway, I had a really great time tonight and it’s kind of cool hanging out with someone who doesn’t try to start dance battles in the middle of bars.”

“Don’t you boast about starting dance battles in the middle of bars?”

“Yes, exactly! There can only be one winner and my other friends get all moody when I obliterate them on the dancefloor.” Gina explained, acting as if it was common sense. “but back to my question.”

“I had a really great time.”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Depends on what plans you have.”

“If I can get you on board with watching Christmas movies in summer, I can do anything. There is nothing that Gina Linetti cannot do.”

“well, I can’t argue with that.”

There was a slight breeze outside when they left the bar, but not cold at all. The bright city lights masked the fact that it was almost midnight, but it wasn’t anything they weren’t used to. 

“I’ve had too much to drink to ride home so I’m just going to walk. How are you getting home?” Rosa enquired. She probably could have safely ridden her motorbike, but she worked for the NYPD and didn’t want to lose her job anytime soon.

“My bus should be here in a minute or so.” Gina responded, looking up from her phone.

“Be careful, people get kidnapped on buses at night.” Rosa warned her friend.

“Who has ever gotten kidnapped on buses.” Gina tilted her head and frowned.

“I don’t know, people.” Rosa huffed. “just text me when you get home, okay?”

“Of course, Rosie.” Gina smiled, reaching up to stroke Rosa’s hair. Rosa was only letting the nickname and hair touching slide because Gina was a little tipsy. That’s what she told herself, anyway. 

The two went separate ways, Gina walking towards her bus stop and Rosa setting off in the opposite direction towards her apartment. Although she carried a gun and had knives stored in her boots, she wasn’t stupid enough to take the backstreets that would get her home faster. Rosa was fast and managed to walk home via the main streets in less than half an hour. The first thing she did once she’d unlocked her front door is check her phone and smiled to herself when she read Gina’s text. It consisted of many variations of house emojis and smiley face emojis forming a huge paragraph and was so perfectly Gina in every way.


	2. dance dance resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different take on a high school dance

It had been a few months since Gina and Rosa leant into each other and watched a movie at an eccentric bar after work one night. With the expectation of going out with the squad and eating lunch together in the break room a couple of times a week, Gina hadn’t come up with any plans she deemed Rosa worthy. Gina was a dreamer and there was no way their first time hanging out together outside of work as a duo was going to be followed up by something boring in comparison. Gina was oddly patient, though. It wasn’t one of her most well-known qualities, but there’s no way an impatient person could work their way up to the top of the mall sunglass kiosk for the sole reason of wanting to get a 10% discount on ray bans. 

It was safe to say Gina was in a state of shock when her Rihanna ringtone started blasting from her phone at 5:30 am.

“If this isn’t Rihanna herself I’m hanging up.” Gina snapped, before even checking the caller ID. 

“It’s Rosa.” Rosa replied, not letting the small smile she had from hearing Gina’s gravelly morning voice affect her tone.

“What’s up?” Gina asked, “other than the sun, barely. You really can’t call people when it’s basically still night-time, Rosa.”

“5:30 is what time normal people get up. Anyway, my yoga class starts at 6 and I needed to tell you our plans before I left.”

“What happened to me having to come up with the plans.”

“I got bored of waiting,” Rosa admitted. She paused before finally saying what she called to say. “I’m part of this Brooklyn big brother program and my little brother who I mentor is part of this dance show and mom is working and can’t go and- its stupid, forget everything I just said.”

“Gina Linetti forgets nothing. I’ll go with you. When is it?”

“Tonight at 7 pm.”

“We can get a burrito from the food stall outside of work and then eat on the bus, does that sound good?” Gina asked, taking charge of the plans. 

“sounds good.” Rosa agreed, biting her lip. Whether it was a cheap dinner date or beers with friends, Rosa was always told people where to go, barely waiting for a response of whether they were free or not. Wanting someone’s input and approval scared Rosa a bit - not that she would ever admit being scared to anyone – and the fear was mixed with confusion when she wondered how her annoying colleague had managed to get under her skin. Sure, her co-workers were probably her closest friends and she spent more time with them than anyone else, but her new friendship with Gina was different. Rosa found herself always looking over to Gina’s single desk when she gave herself a breather from paperwork and her heart felt like it was expanding in her chest every time Gina smiled or laughed. Of course, she knew her heart wasn’t expanding. You can’t make it through three years of medical school and genuinely believe an internal organ was growing whenever you saw a certain person happy, but Rosa didn’t really want to think deeply about what it meant. 

“Have fun at yoga, I’m going back to sleep.” Gina yawned before hanging up.

Rosa did have fun at yoga, but not because Gina told her to. That’s what she told herself, anyway.

-

It was pouring with rain at lunchtime, so the detectives all ended up piled in the break room eating microwavable meals rather than going to a food stall or a nearby takeout place. Rosa and Jake got there first at around 11:45, the two of them taking turns to microwave ramen noodles and discussing the case they were working on. They carried on discussing their own murder case until a few more people arrived, then the conversation turned into an argument over the best condiments. 

The topic change started when Scully and Amy were fighting over whether Amy could handle hot sauce or not. Jake and Rosa just watched the events unfold from the other half of the room but decided to intervene when Amy was fighting back tears.

“Amy Santiago; died age 58 while drowning in spicy sauce.” Jake said.

“If I had to die in a sauce I’d go with ketchup.” Rosa interrupted.

“No way, mayo is the way to go.” Jake argued.

“You’re wrong.” Rosa fought back, folding her arms and sinking back into the old, definitely in need of cleaning, verging on smelly couch. Everyone was used to the ouch, though, and the only people who seemed to turn their nose up at it were pretentious other cops who came to help with one case before going back to their own precinct. 

“I like hot dogs better than condiments.” Scully tried and failed to join in.

“In what world does that help with world war 3: mayonnaise vs tomato ketchup?” Jake asked, frowning at the older detective. Rosa looked over at Amy, who looked like she was about to say her point and was almost over the burn of the chilli sauce.

“A food talk without me?” Boyle sounded hurt, entering the break room with his organise lunchbox, terry and Hitchcock walking behind him. “The best condiment is without a doubt black truffle mustard. I ordered some online and it was exquisite.”

“Alright, that’s it, Boyle ruined the game. Mayo is the winner. Game over.” Jake almost shouted, smiling and taking a bow before sitting down next to Amy at one of the tables. 

Gina was the last to enter at 12:10. She didn’t even try to take the high road and say she’d been working, which I doubt anyone would have believed. Instead, in typical Gina Linetti fashion, the woman entered announcing she was eBay royalty, which we soon found out she had the highest bid on a pair of fake yet very realistic looking Ugg boots. 

“Scully, scotch.” Gina clapped in his direction. Scully surprisingly stood up for himself, only instead of standing, he carried on sitting in the plastic chair he had been sat in for almost half an hour. Rosa guessed Amy’s seat was next on possible seats to snatch and decided Amy had undergone enough trauma for one day.

“Linetti, get over here.” Rosa beckoned, swinging her legs off the sofa to make room between her and Jake. Gina smiled before sitting with her friends. She sat almost diagonally; her legs curled up near Jake and her head almost resting on Rosa’s shoulder. It took a moment to realise the whole room was looking over at Rosa. Not in a strategized stare, like the time Boyle came into work with purple on his tie, but just an ounce of shock and confusion from every detective.

“You’re both looking very cosy.” Boyle commented in his weird high voice he did sometimes. Everybody hated it and had told him that they hated it, which of course only encouraged him.

“Shut up, Boyle.” Gina retorted, which did shut him up but didn’t affect the strange eyebrow risen face he was pulling. 

“How come you threatened to decapitate a cop last week for sitting a metre from you in the briefing room and now you’re practically cuddling Gina?” Terry asked, a puzzled look in his somehow muscular face. Could you even tone facial muscles? Rosa had no idea but that was beside the point.

“Are you saying a woman doesn’t have the right to make her own choices?” Rosa asked, making direct eye contact with her sergeant. 

“I am in no way saying that, Rosa! Terry loves intersectional feminism!”

-

For the rest of the day, Gina actually worked pretty hard. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but for once Gina needed to be out by 6, 6:15 tops, and some part of her brain didn’t want McGintley to have an actual reason to keep her late. Usually, if he kept her late it was to help him with his new phone or to show him how to use Microsoft word rather than actually catching up on her paperwork. A lot of the time Gina didn’t even mind staying late – maybe even liked it, although that’s not something she was willing to share with the group. Although she spent most of her time with her legs up on her desk playing cwazy cupcakes in her desk chair or getting into heated eBay bidding wars over second-hand spandex suits, she liked having her people. She had always had Jake, but the whole precinct had meshed together to form the sort of family. The captain had never been a part of their after works drink group, but Hitchcock and Scully had successfully tagged along a couple of times. Today, though, was a day she wanted to spend her time with just one of her people. 

Any other time that Gina was running late or knew she wouldn’t be somewhere on time, she’d just retweet some sort of half-funny / relatable tweet about someone never being on time, but if she was leaving work with Rosa, she had no excuse. That’s what she told herself – as she filled in weeks’ worth of spreadsheets – anyway. 

“How do you losers actually fill in more than two columns of these confusing boxes without losing your damn minds?” Gina groaned, leaning back in her chair. She had about fifteen minutes left, and she couldn’t take it anymore. It was like having to write three essays the first week back after summer break In high school, only worse because she was in her thirties and had barely lifted a finger since dropping out of college at twenty. 

“You can turn it into a game,” Amy replied, swivelling in her chair to face Gina. “you can see how many you can get done in ten minutes and then try and beat your score, or you can try and find patterns after completing a couple of pages.”

“Did you escape from Area 51? Are you an alien or a guinea pig that they did extreme, super illegal, super nerdy experiments on?” Gina frowned.

“I don’t know why I even try.” Amy muttered under her breath and she swivelled back to face her computer screen.

Gina shrugged, then went on to play cwazy cupcakes under her desk with her phone on mute for the remainder of her shift. 

-

Rosa and Gina left at the same time but didn’t talk until they were both in the elevator. Neither could be bothered with a repeat of lunchtime, not even Gina who would usually live tweet any vaguely dramatic situation and try to get an obscure made-up hashtag trending to celebrate. For some reason, the whole discussion at lunch gave her a foreign feeling in her stomach. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a thing nonetheless, and Gina didn’t want to think about it. 

“are you vegan?” Gina asked as they moved down towards the ground floor.

“What?” Rosa responded, a confused look on her face.

“Well you wake up too early and you do yoga; both sound pretty vegan to me, and this morning you were a tad on the indecisive side, so I just presumed I’ll be ordering both of our burritos.”

“I’m not vegan.” Gina was convinced she saw a subtle awkward smile on the taller woman’s face, but it was gone before she could confirm it. 

Rosa, however could confirm that there was a small smile in a moment of weakness. The second of the day, following her stuttering on the phone early that morning, which was basically repeated with Gina taking charge with the orders. While waiting for the bus, the two started eating their burritos, starving after another long day in the precinct. Gina had made a joke referencing Rosa’s non-existent veganism at the food stall and the owner, obviously not onto their silliness, gladly made two meat-free meals before either had time to object. Luckily, the bean and rice burritos were still delicious and filling.

Gina dragged Rosa to a seat at the back of the bus, insisting they were cool as if they were fifteen years old again. While Rosa finished her food, she listened to Gina retell a story from her dance practise the night before.

“So, obviously, I told Darlene that she couldn’t audition because we don’t have mothers on-“ Gina paused mid-sentence to brush her index finger across the lower half of Rosa’s right cheek. “You had a bit of salsa on your face. I think we got more than usual, which I think we can thank veganism for.”

Rosa was still for a moment, not exactly sure how to react. Yes, Rosa had strict rules about her personal space and was definitely not a touchy person, but that didn’t mean another human being had never touched her face. Growing up with braces meant countless orthodontists had had their rubbery hands all over her mouth trying to get their best angles, but this was completely different. Rosa almost shivered and just hoped the only redness in her cheeks was from the tomato sauce. She gave Gina a quick smile as if to say thank you before looking down at her lap for a moment. 

“You never finished your dance story. Darlene, was it?” Rosa asked after a brief moment. It hadn’t been an awkward interval, but both were aware a pause had happened. 

“Oh, yeah,” Gina continued, picking up where she left off. “So, I told Darlene that she couldn’t audition for the spot, because we don’t have our own mothers on our team. I love her and I’m thankful for her, but that doesn’t mean I need to see us both in matching sequin outfits… although, that could be an excellent Christmas card idea. One second, Rosa, I just need to make a quick call.”

Rosa smiled, almost in awe of how much Gina had to say. She and Gina were becoming fast friends. Not just work friends, friends friends. Rosa was uncharacteristically smiling way too much around Gina, but that was an issue for a later date. 

“Hey, mom. It’s Gina. We need to scrap the Christmas card idea where we remake the Keeping Up with the Kardashians season 3 poster. I’ve come up with a better idea and this one involves fewer outfit changes, plus we won’t have to learn how to use photoshop to make it. It’s a win-win!”

-

They arrived at the venue, a local high school gymnasium, on time after getting off the bus and walking for a few minutes. Rosa had been here before and knew her way. Without thinking, she grabbed Gina’s forearm and dragged her toward the steps. Rosa knew it wouldn’t be long before the kids’ parents came flooding in, taking all the good seats and leaving the pair to be sat directly behind a giant teenager’s equally giant parents.  
Gina hadn’t been in a high school since the day she and Jake graduated over a decade earlier. It didn’t feel totally weird, but she had kind of forgotten gym etiquette and wasn’t sure if there was a seating system or if it was just a free for all, so she was glad when her tall, scary, secretly not so scary friend grabbed her wrist (or maybe even her lower hand, Gina though) and directed her to some decent seats. Although she was primarily here to keep Rosa company, she was looking forward to seeing some of the dance routines. Her passion for dance had flourished in high school and being back in one was bringing back some happy, dancing memories. Gina’s hip-hop club and Jake’s Die Hard club were both on Tuesdays and finished at the same time, and the two would walk to Jake’s Nana’s apartment to a bowl of spaghetti waiting for them the second they arrived. Side note: Jake’s Die Hard club consisted of three members; him, a weird kid who spoke like he was on Downton Abbey rather than a New York City high school in the 90’s, and a usually small guy who was strangely similar to Charles.

“So, what’s the deal with this Brooklyn big brother sitch?” Gina asked once they were seated.

“Big brothers,” Rosa corrected her. “there’s an ‘S’ at the end. It’s a programme for disadvantaged kids, not one of your dumb reality shows.”

“Reality shows are not dumb, Rosa. You’ll be taking it all back when Linetti, set, go takes off.”

“It’s not even reality, it’s all scripted- “

“We’re getting off track. Explain this little brother thing.” Gina interrupted, suddenly putting a finger against Rosa’s lips to shush her. Rosa felt a jolt of electricity run through her body. Not like lightning strike intensity, but intense enough for her to notice it in a loud, full hall of kids and parents. She brushed it off, realising that it was probably the shock of human contact. Anyone touching her face unexpectedly would shock her, seeing as most people knew about and followed her strict personal space rules. 

Gina similarly felt something, only realising her actions could be inappropriate when it was too late, and the side of her knuckle had, for a millisecond, brushed against Rosa’s soft top lip. Gina debated asking what lip balm Rosa used, but this was one of the rare occasions she didn’t try to push the boundaries and further than she already had.

Rosa bit her lips slightly once Gina’s left hand was back on her lap with her right, her fingers intertwining and twisted together in a nervous fashion. “The big- “ her voice was unusually croaky and quiet, so she cleared her throat before continuing. “The big brother programme is basically linking volunteers with kids. I mentor this boy, Sam. His dad is single father working two jobs and they live in a kind of crappy area, so I’m basically just there for Sam and make sure he stays out of trouble. I encouraged him to try out breakdancing about a year ago and they invite family to watch every few months. I come when Sam’s dad can’t. It sounds lame, but I really care about this little backflipping weirdo.”

Gina was slightly taken aback at how much Rosa had just opened up to her. There was a warm fuzzy feeling in her chest that started to grow when Rosa said she talked him into dancing and the feeling peaked when she admitted she cared about another human being. Rosa had been on Gina’s mind a lot recently. As their friendship blossomed, Gina worried that it was one-sided and Rosa was just innocently using Gina’s company when convenient. Gina’s doubts started to disappear when she realised Rosa was a secret softie. 

“Support systems are really important to kids with single parents. I wouldn’t be the woman I am today if it wasn’t for Nana and Jake and Jake’s mom. I really love that you’re doing this, and if anything, it just makes you more badass.”

“you think I’m a badass?” Rosa smirked.

“Oh, shut up and watch your brother spin on his head or something.” Gina elbowed her as the lights dimmed slightly, followed by pop music blasting from the school’s sound system. 

-

“That was so forking cool!” Gina exclaimed, grabbing Rosa by the shoulders and shaking her lightly. Rosa noticed how Gina’s eyes were full of excitement after watching a bunch of fourteen-year-olds dancing to a weird remix of about twenty different songs. “I want to learn how to do that cool thing where he spun on his back.”

“If I’d have known you’d be this into amateur break-dancing I’d have invited you earlier.” Rosa joked, but the other woman took it completely seriously. 

“You know, I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you for this deep betrayal. You were the wall between me and the beauty of dance, Miss Diaz! If you think you’re coming to one of these things again without me, you can think again.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.” Rosa nodded.

 

the kids went out of the hall after their dance and returned a few minutes later with their bags. a lot of kids met with their parent to get driven home. Rosa thought Sam might not have noticed her and had gone straight home, but he returned waving and smiling across at her before running over Gina saw the smile edge its way into Rosa’s face. she could definitely use this against Rosa at the precinct in the future, but she doubted she’d never want or need to. 

“How was I?” Sam asked, looking up at Rosa hesitantly. Of course, he was a little nervous, Gina thought, as there is no way Rosa wouldn’t baby any kids, not even actual babies. Sam cared deeply about Rosa’s opinion and was always glad to see her resting bench face sat across from the gym floor. Other kids would always ask who she was, and he’d just proudly refer to her as his cool aunt.

“You were fine, I guess.” Rosa shrugged, making sure her eyes gave away the fact she was actually proud. she wasn’t going to smother him.

“Are you kidding? Kid, you were fantastic!” Gina almost yelled, throwing her arms up in the air. Rosa rolled her eyes in response.

“This is Gina. She’s probably insane. you can just ignore her.” Rosa informed the boy stood before them.

“Nice to meet you, Gina.” Sam nodded.

“I’m sorry, which country are you the prince of? You're from Brooklyn, sweetie, not Buckingham Palace.” Gina frowned, making him laugh.

The three of them walked out together. Sam insisted he could walk the whole way home, but Gina and Rosa lied about which way they needed to go so that they could at least walk halfway with him. They weren’t together long, but Gina managed to learn all of the fourteen-year-old drama Sam had stuffed inside his brain, as well as witnessing Rosa threaten to put Sam up for adoption in North Korea if he didn’t finish his maths homework and help his dad with the laundry.

“Sam’s friend, Dylan, sounds like a real bench.” Gina scowled once they turned the corner and departed from the young boy. It wasn’t what Rosa has expected from her friend, but she couldn’t say she was surprised.

“Hey, thanks for doing this with me.” Rosa said, softly, walking closer to Gina to let other people on the pathway walk past.

“Don’t even think about it.” Gina responded, in a humble, very un-Gina-like fashion, learning towards Rosa to jokingly bump her shoulder on her friend’s arm. 

“And I’m sorry for waking you up at 5:30 and keeping you up until past 10.”

“Now, that’s an apology you’re going to have to work on. You’ll have to make up for it.”

“What? You expect me to find something you’ll love more than watching beginner high school dance teams?”

“Consider it a challenge.”

Challenge accepted, Rosa thought to herself. And this time she wouldn’t wait months before planning another activity for her and her friend. Probably her closest friend, if Rosa really thought about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the title is a good place reference. high five to anyone who saw that.  
> I hope you liked this chapter, even though its a bit of a mess. I'm forking obsessed with Rosa Diaz and Gina Linetti and writing this without my heart actually melting is so hard!!  
> Also, I'm British so I'm sorry if some of what the characters say is way off :/


	3. does anyone get a little bit of a gay vibe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> parallel to the pilot episode.

Both Gina and Rosa had silently admitted to each other that they liked hanging out with just the two of them. As a pair, the two women started going to events they read about on posters and in their Facebook feeds that they’d usually just dismiss, not having anyone to drag to it. They both had friends out of work, but this was different. Even if Rosa wasn’t interested in the wolf oil painting exhibition in the little gallery two blocks from the precinct, which for some reason always smelled like cough syrup, she always ended up having a good time with the company she had. The same went for when Rosa asked Gina to a ‘bring a friend’ event at her yoga class. Admittedly, Rosa had not fully embraced opening up to Gina thing, but she was happy to go wherever Gina wanted her. Gina pretended not to notice the imbalanced ideas in the imaginary ideas hat, knowing that Rosa was a much more private person and wasn’t the type of girl to live tweet her entire life. Instead of making Rosa her challenge, Gina was just happy Rosa wanted to spend time with her at all. 

The pair got to hang out a lot with McGintley barely even noticing their extra long lunches where they trekked to food stalls almost halfway across the city or the many, many times they finished work an hour early to get the bus to cool bars. That all changed when Terry announced their new captain, Holt was going to be taking over. Gina thought back to when she initiated the precinct’s last fire extinguisher roller chair derby, remembering the smiles on her two best friends’ faces. It wouldn’t be the same, but there was no way that Gina Linetti wasn’t going to eventually have the new captain wrapped around her little finger in a matter of weeks, even if he was tall, seemingly emotionless, and authoritative. She’d been smiling like an idiot - on the brink of straight up giggling – when Jake was forced to repeat his robot impression and Holt had said nothing to her yet, so Gina had high hopes.

“Does anyone get a little bit of a gay vibe?” Gina asked Jake and Amy once Holt’s office door shut. Rosa froze, overhearing. She had a tendency to stop and listen when she heard ‘gay’ or ‘bi’ in conversation, biting the inside of her cheek and hoping she wasn’t about to be outed by whatever company she’s with, but this time it felt more like intrigue when the unsafe, uneasy feeling that was usually there in instances like these. Not that she was going to interrupt the conversation, but Rosa knew exactly where Gina was coming from. Rosa worried Gina asked the same thing about her once she left a room but pushed that worry back.

Holt’s arrival led to a change of atmosphere on their flood, meaning that everyone got stuck into their work to give a good first impression. Two hours after Holt disappeared into his office was when Gina finally made her morning coffee stop at Rosa’s desk, sitting on an empty section and lightly kicking the side of the table over and over again. With anyone else kicking her desk, Rosa would have felt like whipping one of her secret knives from the inside of her jeans, but not with Gina. Rosa put that down to the fact Gina was consistently annoying to the point where Rosa was completely used to it.

“I added some vanilla syrup I bought off eBay to our coffees because I thought we deserved it.” Gina announced, placing Rosa’s mug next to her computer mouse.

“Should you drink things that you bought on eBay?” Rosa asked, taking a sip of her steaming hot beverage before receiving a response. Gina smiled at the irony, taking a sip from her own rainbow patterned mug decorated with waterproof crown stickers, also courtesy of eBay. “How’s your morning been?”

“Chatted with Boyle, that was eventful. Had a meeting with my assistant, Holt. Did you hear, I’m actually the captain now? We just hired Holt because my dainty dancer’s body doesn’t really give off the tough image the city needs.” Gina joked, brushing past the whole Boyle thing. Rosa laughed slightly into her mug. It was more of a deep exhale, but Gina knew exactly what it meant. Luckily for Gina, Rosa didn’t seem to want any further information into her talk with Boyle.

Charles had approached Gina earlier that morning, before the new captain had arrived, basically admitting he had feelings for Rosa and asking about Rihanna tickets. She tried her best to be her usual, fast-paced self but found herself rapidly switching between scaring him away and accidentally helping her co-worker come up with ideas on how to ask Rosa out. 

“I don’t know,” Gina hesitated, resting her head on her hand. “She’s into watching old movies.”. Trying her best to remain calm, Gina was starting to realise maybe she had a small, almost-non-existent-but-still-slightly-there crush on her new best friend. She just wanted Boyle to leave so she could have a moment to get her head around the idea. In the first few seconds of realisation, it all made sense. Being able to come up with multiple date ideas instantly, being jealous of the incredibly awkward detective stood in front of her, getting giddy whenever she went to make Rosa a black coffee with two sugars, getting even giddier whenever her and Rosa had plans to hang out that day. But then again, all these factors could just mean she was protective of her friend. 

Although Gina’s one-sided Rosa drama had been all she could think about for the past two hours, it didn’t change anything in the way she acted when she went over to Rosa. Gina remained calm and collected. Well, as calm and collected as Gina Linetti had ever been, which has never been a huge amount. There was no way Gina was going to ruin one of the most important friendships in her life because of a tiny, irritating voice at the back of her head. 

“Anyway,” Gina started, zapping herself out of her mini daydream. “has your morning been eventful? Arrest anyone? Give anyone a speeding ticket? Steal any new-borns?”

“You know for a fact I haven’t moved from my desk since 9 am.” Rosa responded, completely brushing past the kidnapping comment. “I’m going out to work a case with Amy, Jake and Charles in a bit, though.”

“you’re leaving me?” Gina gasped, putting her hand over her chest in mock outrage. “Who’s this other woman? A gymnast receptionist? A singing assistant? I doubt anyone could be as awesome as a dancing civil administrator.”

“Why am I friends with you.” Rosa rolled her eyes, noticing a couple of pairs of eyes looking in her direction from around the room. She was smiling, though. Not a noticeable smile to anyone who didn’t know Rosa well, but a smile nonetheless. She hated bringing attention to herself, but for some reason, Rosa could never get even the slightest bit mad at Gina, which says a lot if you know about Rosa’s tendency to attack any electronic that didn’t work perfectly first try. 

“I take it we can’t just run off to the Lebanese place for lunch, then.” Gina shrugged.

“I think our lunch date days are over,“ Rosa hesitated, realising what she’d said, but choosing to just hope Gina ignores it. “The new captain seems strict.”

“Do you not listen to anything? I literally just told you that I’m captain, Holt is my assistant.”

“Shut up.” Rosa rolled her dark eyes but contradicted herself again by getting up and walking towards the break room, beckoning the other woman to follow her over. “I need to eat before I work the case anyway.”

Gina saw Jake lean over his desk, squashing an iced doughnut right into his chest as he did so when the pair walked past his and Amy’s desks. They were whispering about something, Amy looking a little cautious while she blatantly gossiped with her partner about something. Gina wondered when they were finally going to sleep with each other. She’s sat behind them for years, watching them flirtatiously bicker like an old married couple. To Gina, they were an obvious couple, but she was also drawn to dysfunction and how no plans to meddle in Jake’s life. It was more entertaining to watch him being stupid and oblivious from afar. 

“Are you two losers coming for an early lunch or are you going to be too busy making out?” Okay, maybe she’d meddle a little. How else was she going to have fun if she could go on lunch dates with Rosa?

“I could ask you the same thing.” Amy muttered under her breath, barely audible. Jake turned to her and bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. Gina was a few steps ahead and completely missed all of this by a few seconds. 

“Do you want to start another, mini bet about how long it’ll take them to start fully making out on Rosa’s desk?” Amy asked Jake.

“Of course, and I bet a month.” 

“I’m going to go with two years, at least. A slow burn kind of relationship”

“They’re just friends, stop trying to start trouble, Jake.” Terry interrupted, overhearing them.

“Amy started it.” Jake almost shouted. Amy rolled her eyes slightly, knowing he was actually being honest for once. 

“I hate to disagree with you, Jakey, but Terry is right. Rosa is straight. She strikes me as the kind of woman who needs a loving, supportive, possible shorter man who could cook her romantic meals whenever she pleases-“ Boyle added. Everyone chose to ignore him

“Whatever, you’re all wrong.” Jake interrupted, pointing at his co-workers with finger guns before joining the couple of the hour in the break room, heating up some boxed mac and cheese for the third time this week so far. It was only Wednesday. 

-

The end of the day finally came, and everyone was dismissed by the new captain. Although the day had felt incredibly long, it hadn’t been a bad day for anyone. There was an obvious, bittersweet feeling with the arrival of a new superior officer. There would probably never be a time for spontaneous, verging on dangerous office games, but even if not everyone would admit it, there was a certain energy boost that came with the realisation that they would all have to start working a lot harder. Gina now felt like she had a pair of judgemental eyes burning laser beams into the back of her skull every time she picked her phone up, but they would fade. Plus, it was a little reassuring than the sound of aggressive snoring that came from the last owner of the office. 

As Rosa walked past her desk to go home, her bag accidentally knocked over a huge pile of paperwork and files, along with a then pencil pot, now smashed mug surrounded by loose biros. Gina dropped everything to go and help her friends pick up her stuff, like the absolute saint she thought of herself as. 

“Thanks.” Rosa said, dropping a handful of broken porcelain into the bin while Gina shuffled the last few papers into an even pile. 

“It’s fine, girl.” Gina smiled but stopped as she looked down at Rosa’s hand. “Are you hurt?”

There was a small cut on the palm of Rosa’s hand, small drops of blood collecting in the lines across it.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“I promise. Look, it’s tiny, it just looks bad because of where it is.” Rosa proved, wiping her hand with a tissue and proving it was nothing.

“wait, I might have a band-aid in my bag.” Gina disappeared, rustling through her massive handbag. For someone who basically only used her phone and the occasional stick of gum, she lugged a lot around with her every day. 

“Here.” Gina returned with an iron man themed band-aid that was quite obviously meant for someone a fraction of their ages.

“Iron man?” Rosa raised an eyebrow.

“It’s my nephew’s. He falls over every 5 minutes, it’s like he has a death wish or something.”

Gina lightly grabbed Rosa’s wrist and twisted her hand to where she wanted it before focusing on putting the band-aid on in the right place. Her lips were pushed to the side in a lopsided pout, which Rosa assumed was her concentration face. Of course, that was a facial expression that Rosa had never witnessed any of the many times she had looked over towards Gina’s desk during their work days. 

“Tah-da!” Gina sang.

“Not sure I’ll be able to stretch my hand properly to ride my motorcycle home, but thanks anyway.”

“Don’t be ungrateful, you iron man whore.”

“I’ve never even seen iron man.” Rosa shook her head to herself as they both went to the elevator, being the last two to leave the precinct other than Holt. 

“shirt.” Gina said at her phone once they were travelling downwards to the ground floor, annoying lingering in her voice.

“What’s up?”

“There’s been a crash where my usual bus route is and I’m going to have to either wait half an hour for my bus to reroute or get, like, three different buses to get home.” Gina explained.

“I can take you home if you want. I have a spare helmet in my locker if you’re not against motorcycles.” Rosa offered. “It’s the least I can offer you as you basically just saved my life up there.

“I do not appreciate your sarcasm, but I will take you up on that motorcycle offer.” Gina elbowed her friend lovingly. “I’ve always wanted to ride on the back of a motorcycle and look like someone off Grease. I don’t think anyone on Grease even rides on the back of a motorcycle, but its just the vibes I get.”

Rosa took a detour to her locker, which didn’t take long.

“There aren’t seatbelts, so you just have to wrap your arms around my waist tightly.” Rosa explained, thankful she could hide behind her helmet. 

“Sounds intimate.”

“If it makes you uncomfortable you could probably find a train or a different but or-“

“I’m fine, Rosa. I just know you like your personal space, that’s all.”

Rosa blushed, which again was hidden by her helmet. 

“If I wasn’t cool with this I wouldn’t have offered.”

Rosa climbed on first, Gina sitting closely behind her. 

Gina’s warm arms wrapped completely around Rosa, her hands resting just beneath her ribcage. An involuntary shiver travelled up Rosa’s spine before Rosa and adjusted to their closeness. She definitely was not used to this sort of closeness at all. She prayed that Gina didn’t feel anything, even though her chest and stomach were lightly pressed against her back. Rosa also prayed that the shiver didn’t happen again, especially not while weaving her way through New York traffic. 

Gina didn’t feel the shiver. Well, she could have done, but her mind was elsewhere. Gina wasn’t a self-proclaimed cuddler, but hugging Rosa and being close enough to inhale the scent of her orange scented conditioner was something she could make an exception for. She felt safe and couldn’t put her finger on why. Yes, Rosa was a cop and could definitely protect her in most instances, but so was Jake and Gina thought of herself as the more protective one in their friendship. It was different with Rosa and Gina was beginning to think that their friendship was different from all of her other female friendships.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to update! This chapter is a bit uneventful but I wanted to finally make the link to the actual b99 storyline. I hope you enjoyed it anyway!! let me know what you thought <3


	4. you are beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dianetti dance party

“Your dancing is really something else.” Rosa smirked, leaning in the doorway of the briefing room, chairs still organised in a curve rather than the usual row setup. It had been a while since Gina performed a questionable, yet beautiful, interpretive dance for the teenagers that came to the precinct earlier that day, but Gina hadn’t left the room. Instead, she had sat on one chair, feet up on another, playing a cupcake game that Gina had spent the last week trying to get Rosa to download. Rosa was sure it was some sort of cult.

“Who are you to judge, Miss Diaz?” Gina responded, barely glancing up from her phone’s screen.

Rosa paused, debating on whether she was going to open up to her friend and voluntarily make herself a little bit vulnerable. Well, as vulnerable as a leather clad detective with heavy eyeliner could be. 

“Well, I did study at the American Ballet Academy.” Rosa bit the inside of her cheek, unfamiliar nerves flooding her body.

“You’re lying!” Gina snapped, tearing her eyes away from her phone and looking at Rosa in awe.

“Nope.” Rosa shook her head, before turning to leave.”

“There is no way in hell you’re dropping a bomb like that and then walking out like it’s nothing, Rosa Diaz.” Gina announced, running across the room at lightning speed and dragging the taller woman back into the room by her wrist. Rosa’s nerves were replaced with a light tingle and she felt her cheeks turning an uncharacteristically pink shade. “How did this never come up? I literally talk about dance every day and we literally watched a dance performance together. Do you really hate me so much that you’d hide this deep, life changing secret from me?”

“God, stop being so dramatic.” Rosa rolled her eyes, feeling more relaxed until she realised Gina’s soft hand was still wrapped tightly around her right wrist. Of course, it was soft; that woman had about four different hand creams in her handbag at all times. 

Although Gina knew that Rosa would never actually be annoyed by her dramatizing everything (if that was the case, the pair would have never spent any time together out of work), but she decided to pause and think about her next steps strategically for a moment. Realising she still had Rosa tight in her grasp, Gina let go, letting her fingers trail along the back of Rosa’s hand for a moment before it fell beside her.  
“Everyone has finished their shift and gone home, except from Holt, who’s busy in his office with the blinds closed like the sketchy assistant he is,” Gina began. “There is absolutely no reason for you to deny me a dance party.”

Gina’s soft blue eyes were looking up at Rosa, her facial expression that of a puppy dog-wolf hybrid. It frustrated Rosa that every day she started agreeing to more and more of the shit Gina suggested. If anyone else had dared to suggest a work dance party, Rosa would have punched them and probably threatened them with a knife she had hidden down the side of her jeans in the time she had spent just looking into Gina’s eyes. Realising that was what brought Rosa out of her mini-daydream. 

“Do you have any ballet style music?” Rosa spoke, hardly believing she was going along with this plan. It wasn’t that Rosa was embarrassed by her dance. She wasn’t, Rosa loved dance and still practised once or twice a week in her apartment. She was just not used to having anyone at work know anything about her that wasn’t visible from the surface.

“I mean, I have Beyonce.” Gina offered.

“Alright.” Rosa shrugged.

The music started, and Gina sat back in her chair again, this time crossing her legs. Rosa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She hadn’t danced for anyone for well over a decade, and even then, it was with a group of conceited ballerinas wo she coincidentally hated the guts of. She took a second to spin her head to double check nobody was watching from behind, her dark curls flying around, then flying back into place before they had time to settle. Rosa straightened her body as much as she could un her chunky leather jacket and got into first position. 

Gina sat back in awe, watching the woman before her move her body in such an elegant, unnaturally Rosa way. About halfway through, Gina had to rest her head in her hand, using her hand to hold up her jaw so it didn’t hit the hard, tiled floor. Seeing people dance always filled Gina with a sense of pride and excitement, but this was different. Gina silently admitted to herself that she may have the tiniest crush on her best friend, slowly after realising she would literally sit and watch Rosa dance for about a week straight if she could. For every second Rosa danced, Gina’s crush grew. Every position change made the corners of Gina’s mouth curve into an adoring smile, and every pirouette made Gina’s mind race with images of the pair twirling through endless fields of wildflowers together. 

“Sorry if I was bad, I’m rusty.” Rosa shrugged as the song ended, looking towards her feet; the same feet that had effortlessly performed in heavy boots rather than ballet slippers.

“Who are you and what have you done with Rosa?” Gina practically yelled, throwing her arms up in the air and beaming to help get her point across.

“Hey, shut up, Holt is literally a few metres again.” Rosa hushed Gina, putting a finger over her mouth in a hushing motion. It worked. The two women stopped, eyes like a deer in headlights, wondering whether a boundary had been crossed. Gina was the first to speak again. There was no way she was going to let insignificant feelings ruin the best friendship she’d had since meeting Jake as a kid. 

“I’m pretty sure he has remote control ears and can just switch them off whenever he wants to zone out.” Gina said, tilting her head and looking up at Rosa, still smiling. 

“Didn’t I agree to a dance party?” Rosa reminded Gina, fully emerging herself in an evening of embarrassment in her place of work. 

Rosa picked up Gina’s phone, guessing the passcode right first time. 4462; the numbers above the letters that spell ‘Gina’. Rosa smirked at her narcissistic friend, who just rolled her eyes, still smiling. This could possibly be the longest Gina had smiled since Boyle spilled hummus on hid keyboard and tried to lick it off, although Gina’s smile that day had been more of a pained, uncomfortable smile. 

“Why do you only have the movie version of songs downloaded?” Rosa asked, playing Mamma Mia and putting the phone back on the chair.

“Who doesn’t love Meryl Streep?” 

“Fair enough.”

Rosa started by barely dancing, more just swaging a little. Meanwhile, Gina was twisting her arms in elaborate circular motions, which somehow fit perfectly with the music. Her head was throwing her hair all over the place, leaving waves stuck over her face and entangled with her eyelashes she was finally upright for more than a few seconds. Rosa took the opportunity to grab Gina’s hand and spin her around until she was dizzy.

Barely able to stand upright, Gina fell backwards into Rosa’s arms, leaning back in a pose she had seen on Dancing with the Stars. 

“You’re insane.” Rosa shook her head.

“Hm, that’s where you’re wrong,” Gina corrected. “I’m always like this, you’re the one who’s acting like you’re high.”

“Whatever.” 

The two women danced to a couple more songs until they were both breathless. Rosa drew the line at dancing to Barbie Girl, which coincided with her being desperate for some water. Noticing Gina’s water bottle underneath her chair in the corner of the room, Rosa excused herself to go and steal a bit of her drink. 

Gina stepped back subconsciously, an action that would usually be insignificant, but in her new stance, she was able to see someone in the corner of her eye. 

Holt was stood in the doorway. He clearly hadn’t been there for long, but long enough to get the gist of what had been going on in his precinct after hours. Him and Gina locked eyed, her eyes widening in a slight panic as her boss’ face stayed neutral; like it had and probably would always be. 

The captain of the nine-nine had seen his fair share of blossoming office romances and knew the colleagues to friends to lovers narrative all to well. He was usually unphased by other people’s business, but in the short time he had known them, he had come to respect these women. Holt was a fan of Rosa’s no-nonsense attitude and was proud to have someone so fearless and smart as part of his squad. Gina was almost the complete opposite, constantly talking about things he couldn’t care less about and emailing him links to ‘which type of pasta are you based on your choice in Sandra Bullock movies’ or something equally obscure. Despite her quirks and lack of motivation, Gina actually helped him with most of his little problems without even realising. Her mind never stopped coming up with new ideas and her volume (or how she puts it, ‘pizazz’) was probably good for him. That’s what Kevin said when Holt explained the situation to his husband, anyway. 

Holt gave a small, almost unnoticeable, knowing nod to Gina, who released a deep breath she hadn’t even realised she was holding in. Holt left work that evening with a warm feeling in his ribcage rather than the usual stress of his new job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking ages writing this chapter!! I knew what I wanted to write but struggled a bit trying to make it feel like a full chapter. anyway, I hope you enjoy it and hopefully I'll start getting faster with my writing.
> 
> Let me know if you liked it and if there's anything you want to see in future chapters <3


	5. hot chocolate and holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The nine nine spend Thanksgiving together

Gina had woken up late on thanksgiving morning after binge watching Scandal until the early hours of the morning. Ironically, she both needed and didn’t have enough time to get coffee if she was going to make it through work and Amy’s thanksgiving dinner. Although Gina was secretly looking forward to hanging out with everyone at Amy’s, she still needed energy to help her put on her rude house guest act. Reluctantly, she ripped her wolf blanket off her body and forced herself to swap her cosy bed for the cold air of her apartment. 

“Hey, did you remember to bring your bingo card in?” Rosa asked, greeting Gina as she arrived. It was usually Gina going over to sit on the other woman’s desk rather than the other way around, but Gina decided she liked both ways.

“Never left the room, sweetheart. As if I’d risk getting my baby lost.” Gina replied, taking her full bingo template from a pile on her desk and kissing it. 

“You’re weird.”

“You love it.”

Rosa rolled her eyes 

“Guys, Boyle’s coming.” Jake practically shouted, half running out of the break room where he had been looking down out of the window for his friend since Gina had arrived that morning.

Rosa looked at Gina, wordlessly asking if she was coming to sit closer to the middle of the office. Gina just gave a tired groan in response and sunk deeper into her desk chair. While Gina debated in her head whether to try and walk her chair over without standing up or just pay Scully to wheel it over, Rosa held out her hands to drag Gina onto her feet.

Gina forced her sleep-deprived brain to not grab her friend’s hands too fast while simultaneously trying to decide whether she was still dreaming. It only took a second to decide that her dream wouldn’t include the smell of burnt oatmeal and she wouldn’t be able to see Hitchcock picking dry skin from the back of his ear in the corner of her eye. 

Rosa’s hands fit Gina’s smaller hands perfectly. Both women had soft skin, but the detective’s strong grip made sure neither hand slipped. When Gina was stood upright and her fingers were no longer locked in Rosa’s palm, her hands were still tingling slightly. All she wanted in that moment was to have Rosa’s hands on her still cold cheeks, but she tried to push that thought out of her brain and replace it with plans on what to buy with the $100 she was definitely going to win from Boyle Bingo. 

Gina sat on a spare chair right next to the desk Rosa was leaning on. Rosa couldn’t help but smile when she looked down to her friend, watching her eyelids flutter and try to stay open. After a moment, Gina realised she had a pair of eyeliner caked eyes staring into her soul and looked up. Rosa didn’t look away right away, which was what she usually did when she was caught blatantly looking at pretty people. She smiled, before moving to pick up her coffee.

“You’ve got coffee?” Gina asked, eyes suddenly wider than they’d been all morning. 

“Yeah, It’s kind of lukewarm, but-“ 

Rosa couldn’t finish her sentence, being interrupted by Gina snatching the cup from her. Rosa watched her take a sip, her friend’s lipstick mixing with the lipstick stain she’s left on the drink mere seconds earlier. Rosa knew she wasn’t the one drinking the hot beverage anymore, but she still had a warm feeling in her stomach.

“This is, like, 90% chocolate, Rosa. You strike me as more of a black coffee kind of gal.” Gina tilted her head, looking up between sips.

“Shut up, weirdo.” Rosa rolled her eyes before greeting the man of the hour. Boyle had just arrived on the office’s floor and everyone was gathered, but she didn’t do anything to stop everyone from seeing their civil administrator sipping from a cup clearly labelled ‘ROSA’. She knew they made little comments when they all thought she wasn’t listening, but she also knew everyone in the squad was too scared of her to seriously bring anything up. 

The squad’s work day had been shortened due to Amy’s thanksgiving dinner that afternoon. Rosa made the most of her time by finishing a pile of paperwork that was less interesting than watching paint dry, and she only snapped two pencils in frustration along the way. Gina, on the other hand, turned some of her paper into origami models with video tutorials she found on her Instagram explore page, occasionally pausing to look over at Rosa. Her lips were a mixture between being pursed and twisted. Gina had worked out months ago that this was her friend’s concentration face. Gina couldn’t deny that Rosa looked a little like an angry wolf, but she thought wolves were cute, anyway. 

Instead of everyone travelling separately, someone came up with the genius idea of carpooling. Amy left a couple of hours earlier than everyone else to get a head start on cooking, Holt was going home before the dinner to feed Cheddar, and Hitchcock and Scully were travelling together, but Hitchcock’s car didn’t have seatbelts in the back seat. Terry made a mental note to quiz him on road safety another day before walking over to Jake’s car. Charles had called shotgun within seconds, surprising absolutely nobody.

“Are you sure you won’t trade seats, Boyle?” Terry asked for the last time. He had explained that there wasn’t enough room for him, Rosa and Gina to all sit in the back due to how he was bigger than the average passenger, but Charles was having none of it. Reluctantly, Sergeant Terry Jeffords squeezed into the back seat, giving Rosa a sympathetic look as she plugged in her middle seat’s belt.

Rosa and Gina were in very close proximity, their entire side pushing against each other. There had been a handful of times the pair had sat closely before, but every time it felt a little bit different. Gina could hear Rosa’s breathing next to her and it took all her strength to stop herself from resting her tired head on the taller woman’s shoulder

It wasn’t an attraction thing, Gina kept telling herself. She was just tired and desperate for any rest. She was starting to believe the sleepy voice in her head until Rosa unfolded her arms and rested them on her lap, accidentally brushing her hand against Gina’s thigh due to their closeness. 

Gina let out a small, sudden gasp at the shock she felt from the contact, quickly trying her best to cover it with a cough. 

This wasn’t Gina. Gina was always in control, always had everyone wrapped around her little finger whether they knew it or not. Instead, Rosa had Gina wrapped around hers and didn’t even know it. The rest of the journey was spent with minimal chatter in the back and way too much singing in the front while Gina was deep in her thoughts, thinking about how she was going to get herself out of this mess with one of her best friends. There was no way she was letting herself fall for a straight best friend again. 

Rosa and Gina didn’t have another opportunity to be that close again for the rest of the day. Nothing went according to plan and everyone was stressed and tired and hungry, but fortunately Gina managed to down a couple of coffees amid the chaos. 

“That was the best meal I’ve ever had.” Rosa sighed, sitting down next to Gina at the bar. After dinner at the precinct, Holt surprisingly suggested taking the party to Shaw’s. Nobody was getting drunk or anything like that, just having a drink or two and making excused to spend more time together.

Gina had heart Rosa admit her thoughts on the meal to at least three of their colleagues before having it said directly to her, but she didn’t mind. She could honestly listen to Rosa say the same thing over and over again every single day. It was usually the other way around.

“I feel gross admitting this, but I hate how much I love all of you losers.” Gina admitted, leaning closer to her friend so nobody else heard. If Rosa ever tried to make fun of her – which Gina doubted would happen – she’d just blame it on the one drink she had finished. Gina wasn’t like Amy and wasn’t really affected by one beer, but for the sake of the hypothetical argument, she could pretend. 

“Apparently Jake, Amy and Boyle are my siblings now.” Rosa rolled her eyes, tapping her forefinger on the glass bottle in her hands, waiting for Gina’s response.

“Back the fuck off, Diaz. Jake is my brother.”

“Are you saying we’re sisters then?” Rosa quizzed her friend.

“No, that’s disgusting.” Gina replied, sticking her tongue and pretending to vomit.

Rosa felt something shift between the two women. Rosa didn’t know why, but she was glad Gina didn’t see their friendship as a sisterly one and she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth curling upward. The nine nine’s closeness and support were definitely very similar to a close-knit family, so it wouldn’t have been a shock if Gina had gone along with the fake sibling act. 

There was a dip in the pair’s conversation, which was when Terry and Scully turned to them and started a mini-debate about Jack and Rose from titanic, only it couldn’t be called a debate if everyone was on the same side. Rose was a selfish bitch who let Jack die and that was something Gina Linetti would always stand by.

It was the end of the night, around 10pm, and the squad were getting ready to leave. Terry hadn’t drunk that night and was safe to drive, so dropped Amy and Holt off at their places on the way home. Hitchcock and Scully’s taxi came first, leaving Jake, Gina and Rosa to wait for theirs. Their cab driver said about fifteen minutes, so Jake took that opportunity to run back inside the bar to use the restrooms.

It was cold and windy outside, but not unbearably cold. Gina’s curled hair had turned into a frizzy mess and she eventually tucked half of her hair into her jacket, almost caving and putting her hair in a ponytail for the first time since college. Luckily it didn’t get that far. Gina couldn’t help but notice the way Rosa’s face glowed in the beams from the streetlights, her wild curls being blowing in the wind.

“I don’t know if Amy told you this today, but you look beautiful.” Gina told Rosa, instantly regretting it with fear that she's made Rosa feel uncomfortable and ruined everything. 

"You too, Gina."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to update!! It's been SO LONG, but I've been sick and really busy with school work. plus, I'd rather take a while than rush and ruin a story about one of the most beautiful ships.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! let me know what you think <3


	6. love actually is all around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosa and Gina sort of plan a movie night

Gina had known that Charles had a huge crush on Rosa for months. She couldn’t blame him and, yes, he was one of the strangest men she had come across in this life and arguably the worst suited partner for Rosa, but that didn’t stop Gina from picturing the two of them getting married and having a few weird looking emo babies together while she grew old alone in her tiny New York apartment. 

Despite her fears in the back of her mind, she never let it show. She still wound Boyle up the way she would if he wasn’t in love with her best friend / owner of her heart. She still occasionally had a civil conversation with the guy, which was when she learnt that he was spending his Christmas on a singles cruise. 

It was a cold morning the day of Boyle’s trip. Not snowy or icy, but incredibly windy and the sort of temperatures that made you wish you could just bring your whole duvet to work with you as a giant scarf. It was a miracle Gina made it into work both dressed and with her curls still in place. It was that same morning that Boyle practically stalked the civil administrator to the photocopier to ask her advice on flight times, while somehow managing to tell her everything that had ever happened between him and Rosa.

It was reassuring knowing that Rosa was so blunt with him, not that Gina was surprised. ‘I like you as a friend but I’m just not into you romantically.’ Sounds like a direct quote from Rosa’s beautiful mouth, so Gina didn’t doubt Charles’ enactment for one second. 

After their little conversation, Gina continued printing and copying what she needed for the morning, which did include a dot-to-dot picture worksheet of Kim Kardashian she found on Twitter. She was about to leave, but her feet stopped moving in the doorway.

“You don’t, like, love her, do you?” Gina winced, before turning to face Charles.

“I don’t think it’s real love. I think, for me, anyway, true love needs to be mutual.” Charles shrugged.

Gina wasn’t convinced it was the same for her

“Why are you hovering over my desk? You look like some sort of tall, scary, somewhat-sexy-but-still-weird wasp.” Gina raised an eyebrow at Rosa, who was stood with her arms folded, adjusting her stance every other second.  
It took everything in Rosa to stop herself from blushing when Gina called her ‘sexy’ in a backhanded compliment kind of way. Luckily for her, she had been practising hiding emotion for her entire life and was basically an expert in it now. 

“What was Boyle saying?”

“He said you said you had a boyfriend.”

“I just said that to shut him up.”

Gina let go of a breath she didn’t realise she was holding in and hoped it wasn’t noticeable.

“Is that why you were hovering, little ladybug?” Gina asked again, sinking back into her desk chair, looking up at her friend.

“I was wondering if you wanted to hand out later, or something. It doesn’t matter, It’s stupid.” Rosa rambled. Gina had witnessed a few of these word vomit sessions from her little Rosie when they were first figuring out their friendship, but at this point they were hanging out a couple of times a week at least.

“I mean, everywhere will be really busy with Christmas parties.”

“I know. I said it was stupid, not that I was stupid.”

Gina stopped to try and figure Rosa out for a moment. She couldn’t decide if Rosa was hinting at hanging out at one of their places or if that was just something Gina wanted Rosa to want. 

“I’m leaving early for a dental appointment, but do you want to come over after work to watch a movie or something? I can buy a load of chocolate and popcorn on my way back from the dentist’s office.” Gina suggested, both women seeing the irony in eating a ton of sugar right after getting your teeth checked.

“That sounds like fun.” Rosa responded, trying not to sound too enthusiastic, but failing. To a stranger, Rosa would have sounded completely neutral, but Gina knew that girl’s voice all too well.

“Cool,” Gina smiled, scrunching her nose up in a way that made Rosa’s ice heart feel a bit melty. “You do know where I live, right?”

“I know where you live, Linetti.”

“Cool, cool, cool.”

“My shift ends at six, so I’ll be around at like seven.”

“See you then, Girl.”

-

Gina’s usual dentist was off sick, so she didn’t spend as long dragging out the appointment like she usually did. Instead of the guy she described as a sexy, rugged, older Obama, her replacement dentist was fresh from dental school and probably got her braces off three day before accepting the job. Gina wasn’t too bothered, though, as saving time at her check-up gave her more time to make sure she could buy enough of Rosa’s favourite popcorn. They had somehow got into a popcorn discussion months earlier, both having passionate opinions on sweet and salted flavour and completely shutting Boyle down when he tried to express his opinions. 

Hours seemed to pass without Gina even realising, which was rare for her when she was looking forward to something. Her whole afternoon off meant she could catch up on her laundry as well as catch up on the episodes of Grey’s Anatomy she had missed. 

It was dark outside by the time seven o’clock came around. Gina did a quick tidy up of her tiny apartment, moving a couple of dance leotards from the back of the sofa to her closet. Although her and Rosa didn’t have exact times in their plans, Gina still had a small anxious feeling in the back of her mind as she waited for a knock at the door. 

By eight, she let herself worry a little more, sending Rosa a third text which was closely followed an unsuccessful phone call.

Gina continued watching fictional surgeons slice into fake bodies on her tv, not really paying attention, until her phone rang and she saw a selfie with her and Rosa smiling show up as caller ID. 

“Rosa, are you okay?” Gina answered before the phone could ring a second time.

“I’m fine. There was a whole thing with Holt and a death threat. Holt is fine. Charles got shot. We’re in the hospital. He’s going to be fine. Do you want me to pick you up and bring you over? We’re all here.” Rosa rambled, losing her ability to construct extended sentences.

“Yes, please.”

“I’ll be there in about ten minutes, okay?”

Gina wrapped up warm with layers of coats and scarves, but there was a still a cold breeze when she went downstairs to wait outside for Rosa. Luckily, her co-worker arrived in a squad car the moment she started debating whether she had hyperthermia or not. 

Rosa told Gina everything within minutes of her getting in the car. Once Gina knew everything, a thoughtful silence filled the vehicle. Gina knew the shooter was aiming for Rosa and this situation could have been so much worse, but she told herself she wasn’t going to think about that properly until she was alone.

“Can we have the lights and siren on?” Gina asked.

“No!” Rosa snapped. She wasn’t really annoyed, though, and they both knew it. 

Despite the squad being there because one of them literally got shot, there was a sort of light-hearted atmosphere with Jake making jokes that absolutely nobody asked for. Once everyone was certain that Boyle was going to be okay, everyone was able to relax. Boyle wouldn’t have wanted everyone to feel bad, anyway. 

It was getting late and Boyle was getting tired, so everyone agreed it was time to leave. Charles was staying in hospital overnight and Jake and Terry both volunteered to see how he was the next morning. The surgeon who removed his bullet wounds assured everyone that he’d be going soon. Gina couldn’t help but feel like she was in one of the early seasons of Grey’s Anatomy where the doctors did normal surgeries instead of dying in plane crashes and giving people robot hearts. The robot hearts might have been made up; Gina mainly watched the show for the drama. 

“Come on, I’ll take you home.” Rosa said, grabbing Gina’s forearm and noticing Jake raising his eyebrow in a suggestive way. “not like that, dummy.”

“Go flirt with Amy, weirdo.” Gina waved a her and Rosa made their way towards the parking lot. 

It wasn’t even 10pm yet, but so much had happened in the past few hours. 

Gina rested her head on the window, listening to Wannabe play quietly from the throwback radio station Rosa had on in the car.

“You tired?” Rosa asked.

“Not at all, are you?” Gina sat up, turning to the driver.

“Same here. I can just tell I’m not going to sleep well tonight, you know?”

“You can still come over and watch a movie if you want. There’s no point both of us being wide awake in different apartments when I’ve got Love Actually on DVD and two bags of sweet and salted popcorn.” Gina offered for the second time that day.

“You remembered what popcorn I like. That’s adorable.” Rosa commented, which she presumed meant the taller woman has accepted her offer.

Gina unlocked her door to her little apartment, directing Rosa tot the kitchen where the snacks were while she set up the movie. Within five minutes, the pair of them were curled up on opposite sides of the sofa under one of Gina’s many wolf blankets, their legs almost tangled in the middle. Neither of the women were ready to admit how comfortable they were like this.

As the movie played, the two women gradually moved closer together, telling themselves it was to so they could both easily reach the popcorn bowl that Gina poured both bags of popcorn into. Gina was practically commentating the movie, voicing all of her opinions as the film played. Rosa didn’t mind. They had both clearly seen the movie dozens of times.

Nearer the end of the movie, Gina’s head was resting on Rosa’s shoulder. Rosa’s heart couldn’t seem to calm down, which just made Rosa annoyed with herself. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to have butterflies over the fact her best friend used her shoulder as a pillow, or the fact she remembered her favourite popcorn, or that she pulled a really adorable, scrunchy face that was almost exclusively for Rosa. Gina could have rested her head on Rosa completely platonically, but Rosa was sure she had accidentally fallen asleep. The butterflies turned to slight panic at the thought of Gina waking up and realising she was almost cuddling Rosa, which Rosa was sure would lead to awkwardness, which would lead to their friendship crumbling, which would lead to Rosa’s heart turning back into a ball of ice. 

“Emma Thompson, sweetie, you deserved so much better.” Gina sighed, putting an end to the whirlwind in Rosa’ mind. Gina was awake the whole time and knew exactly what she was doing. Well, almost exactly what she was doing. She hadn’t wanted to cross any boundaries, but her head got heavy and she just couldn’t help herself. 

The two sat comfortably, curled up, for the remainder of the film. The credits rolled in the early house of the morning and both Rosa and Gina had tired eyes, but still didn’t see sleep happening anytime soon.

“You could have died today, Rosie.” Gina said quietly, wrapping an arm loosely around her friend. The music from the DVD had stopped a few moments earlier, and both women knew this conversation was coming at some point.

“I know.” Rosa closed her eyes tight, even though Gina couldn’t really see her face from her current position. “It was really scary.”

“God, I need to stop getting so attached to cops who are paid to put their lives in danger.” Gina muttered.

“You’re too tired to drive. You’re staying over.” Gina told Rosa, changing the subject.

“I’d argue with you, but I don’t have the energy.”

“Honestly, you’d think I was the detective.”

Gina disappeared to her room, returning with a pair of pyjamas, a pillow, and a spare toothbrush. 

“The pyjamas might be a bit short, but its not my fault you’ve got supermodel giraffe legs.” Gina smiled, handing Rosa her little pile of things. 

“Thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome.”

That night ended with the pair brushing their teeth together, pretending they weren’t making eye contact through the reflection in the mirror. Gina felt like she had seen a softer side of Rosa that day, and even more so now seeing her in pink plaid pyjamas with no eyeliner and her curls in a ponytail on the top of her head. This definitely wasn’t how Rosa expected her night to end, not that she was against it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE LAST UPDATE BEFORE GINA LEAVES THE NINE NINE? WHERE IS THE DIANETTI LOVE STORY I DESERVE? I'm actually so upset but I love Chelsea so much and as long as she's happy with her decisions I'll be okay.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter!! let me know what you thought <3
> 
> (also high five if you noticed the thasmin reference @ doctor who fans)


	7. the paris of people

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gina and Rosa get ready and attend Holt's birthday party together

Gina kind of had a feeling the nine-nine were going to all be invited to Holt’s birthday party, but still pretended to be shocked when the invites popped up in their emails. For once, she hadn’t been intentionally snooping. Earlier in the week she had noticed ‘Raymond Holt’s birthday’ written in blue biro in the captain’s office calendar, and blue biros were used for all his work-related events. 

“Hey, will it look weird if we turn up together?” Rosa asked Gina, taking a seat beside the administrator’s desk once the initial party excitement had died down. 

Both Gina and Rosa had become increasingly aware of the rest of the precinct noticing them getting closer, and at the same time both women were becoming increasingly attracted to each other. At first, their co-workers had made loud jokes about the pair of them, seeing who could get the most laughs. Now, it was more shared smiles and nudges whenever Rosa and Gina were sat drinking coffee together or turned up at work together. Rosa always thought that not having to hear their nonsense would be better, but she soon realised she was wrong. Rosa was still completely surprising her romantic feelings, convincing herself that this was just what close female friendships must be like. She knew she was into women, but she was also attracted to men and that didn’t mean she wanted to make out with Jake or be Terry’s mistress. 

“I mean, I don’t think so.” Gina knew exactly what Rosa was subtly getting at. “I assume you’re wearing that new, super pretty, V-neck black dress, so its not like you’d be on your motorcycle. Everyone knows I’ll be getting a taxi or taking a bus or something, so it makes sense that we’d travel together.”

Rosa was planning on wearing that dress, and her decision was made completely when Gina called it ‘super pretty’. 

“Okay, cool.” Rosa nodded before leaving for her own desk again. 

-

Rosa rode her motorbike to Gina’s about an hour before Holt’s party and the two of them planned on splitting a taxi from there. There were grey clouds surrounding the Brooklyn skyline and it was very lightly raining, so Rosa didn’t bother removing her helmet until she was at Gina’s door.

“Are power rangers supposed to be hot? Keep it PG, sweetie.” Gina half-joked, holding the door open for her friend, who was rolling her eyes as she pulled the helmet off her head, carefully making sure her makeup didn’t smudge.

“How close are you to being ready?” Rosa asked, not expecting it to be too soon. She was talking to a woman who spent over an hour signing three forms. She didn’t even need to read anything, just write her pretty, swirly signature on the bottom of the piece of paper on a clearly labelled dotted line. 

“I need to do my eyeliner and then change into heels.” Gina answered, dramatically kicking her leg up to eye level to show Rosa the fluffy pink socks she was currently wearing. 

“adorable.” Rosa commented on the socks with very little expression in her voice. 

Gina disappeared into the bathroom to finish her makeup, telling Rosa to make herself at home. It wouldn’t be the first time, as it wasn’t long ago that Rosa spent the night wrapped up in Gina’s spare blankets on her sofa. Rosa had fond memories of waking up to the sight of Gina Linetti and her wild morning hair eating lucky charms and scrolling through twitter at the kitchen counter, playing her music quietly so her peaceful friend could wake up in her own time. Their shifts started at 10:30 that day, and Rosa expected the situation would be completely different if it included Gina being forced to get out of bed at six o’clock in the morning. 

“Oh my god, shut up!” Rosa heard Gina shout from the next room, then decided to investigate.

“Who are you talking to?” Rosa asked, leaning in the open doorway of Gina’s bathroom.

“My eyeliner.”

“because eyeliner is famously argumentative?”

“very funny, but no. I just can’t make it look right today; I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Gina sighed.

“come on.” Rosa held the back of Gina’s shoulders, gently directing her towards the sofa again. The two women sat down, and Rosa explained that she was going to do Gina’s eyeliner for her. 

“Don’t blink, okay?” Rosa reminded her fiend, holding Gina’s face steadily in her hand.

“Okay.” Gina replied quietly, her voice getting stuck in her throat. As Rosa’s fingers pressed down closer to her eyelids, Gina felt the hair on her arms raise underneath the sleeves of her purple dress. She was also becoming increasingly aware of the fact her cheeks were getting warmer. Usually, it would be fine, as her slightly thicker party makeup would likely cover any blushing, but Rosa’s hands were literally on her cheeks. Directly where her skin was practically on fire. Rosa and Gina were usually more than happy in their personal bubbles and avoided close contact if possible, but it wasn’t embarrassment Gina was feeling. Before the shorter woman could fully get her head around what she was feeling, Rosa’s palm left her face.

“Done.” Rosa said, accidentally letting a small smile sneak its way onto her face, which inevitably made Gina smile as well.

“Thanks, Rosie.” Gina tilted her head, then leaped up and disappeared, on the hunt for some suitable shoes. Rosa booked a taxi while she was left alone, still secretly smiling at their encounter. 

Gina reappeared in her apartment’s main room around the same time Rosa got a text saying their taxi had arrived. Gina quickly pulled two bottles of wine drink from a cupboard on her way out, claiming she bought in bulk to save money. Rosa wasn’t sure if Gina drank the wine drink or had bottles upon bottles of the stuff to give to people when necessary, but either way Rosa wouldn’t have been shocked. 

\--

The party hadn’t exactly been the most traditional of parties. Usually, Gina made sure she was at least a little tipsy within the first hour, claiming she couldn’t get through mass amounts of small talk with acquaintances sober. However, Holt’s birthday was a completely new experience. Her and Rosa had an unspoken agreement where they were going to see how ridiculous Gina could act without people getting suspicious. Rosa introduced Gina to an abnormal psychologist and they basically hit the jackpot. Gina let her mind go wild, unconsciously looking over to Rosa every minute or so for approval. 

Gina didn’t know why she wanted approval so badly. She was a pretty independent person. She was an only child raised by a single parent in New York City and her relationship with her Mother was more about mutual respect and compromise than her being a child who was told what to do. As an adult, Gina hadn’t ever become the sort of person who was keen to please and be liked by everybody. Part of her considered people pleasing traits a weakness, which was part of the reason she found it so easy to wind Amy up at work. Rosa was breaking all of the rules Gina had with herself. Gina, looking over at Rosa in her figure-hugging black dress and luscious curls, had never wanted a woman to give her a shiny gold star sticker more before in her life. 

When the other guests’ fascination in Gina died down, Rosa made her way over to the Sofa and sat next to her insane, one of a kind friend. 

“So, how much of that was true?” Rosa asked.

“Well, my mom did cry the day she gave birth to me, but it was more because I ripped her vagina and was born purple.”

“interesting.”

“All men are at least 30% attracted to me, though. I stand by that statement.” Gina repeated.

“What about women?” Rosa asked, instantly feeling like she had crossed a line she couldn’t return from. Luckily, Gina didn’t even flinch. 

“Oh, it’s about the same. Maybe even 35%.” Gina smiled. 

The two women carried on chatting on the sofa, not realising that the room was slowly emptying. In the end, Gina realised when Rosa went to use the bathroom and she realised she was the only guest left.

“Miss Linetti.” Kevin nodded, entering her eyeline.

“Hey, I’m sorry we haven’t left yet. We were just talking and didn’t realise time passing.” Gina explained.

“Ah, I know the feeling well. Raymond and I often find ourselves like that after many years of getting to know each other.” 

“Oh, me and Rosa aren’t, like, you know, like that.” Gina stuttered, about twenty different responses trying to mash themselves into one sentence which ultimately made her sound like she was sleep talking. 

“Whatever you and Rosa are, it’s important to have good relationships with other people and I’m glad you have that in your life.” Kevin told Gina. Why did Gina feel like Kevin was giving her some friendly, fatherly advice? 

“Thank you.” Gina blushed, not knowing why. By this time of the night, some of her makeup had disappeared and wasn’t hiding her emotions as easily as before.

Kevin and Gina were different in many ways but had a few key things in common. Both knew Holt’s quirks, both had seemingly emotionless people as their closest relationship, and both were big Scandal fans. Kevin watched the show for the interesting political storylines and Gina watched it for the drama, but the two overlapped. Captain Holt’s assistant and husband ended up easily chatting for another ten minutes before Holt and Rosa reappeared.

“I hope you both had a good time, and I thank you for not breaking party rules like some of your fellow detectives.” Holt said to Rosa and Gina, Kevin rolling his eyes. Gina didn’t know what had gone down and didn’t dare to ask, but expected Jake was something to do with this and reminded herself to text him as soon as she got home. 

Rosa and Gina said their goodbyes and left Holt and his husband to get some rest, apologising again for overstaying their welcome, even if Kevin assured them the other guests had only left a quarter of an hour earlier.

“I know we need to sleep, Rosa, but I’m starving. Tiny, fancy party food just doesn’t fill me.”

“Yeah, same here.” Rosa agreed. She’d had more than her fair share of crackers and fancy cheeses, but it was more of a glorified snack than a meal. “We’re two stops on the subway from a really good taco place-“

“yes!” Gina interrupted, linking arms with Rosa and marching in the direction of the nearest station. 

It was only about twenty minutes before they made it to the restaurant. Rosa had been to this particular 24-hour taco restaurant an embarrassing amount of times and knew the menu inside out. When Gina asked for recommendations, she knew exactly what her friend would want. 

“Mmm” Gina hummed, eating as if she hadn’t been fed in a week. 

“I told you it was good.” Rosa reminded her.

“I know, you’re always right.”

Rosa turned to Gina, who was sat on the stool next to her, to see that she had somehow got tomato sauce all over her right cheek.

“You’re a mess.” Rosa laughed at Gina, dabbing her face with a napkin.

“yet all women are still 35% attracted to me.” Gina responded with a sarcastic, exaggerated wink. 

Rosa was pretty sure Gina was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still so upset about the best tv show character of all time LEAVING BROOKLYN NINE NINE but at least chelsea is happy and healthy.
> 
> I feel like this chapter is a bit weak but I hope you like it anyway!! not to sound like a broken record but let me know what you think because comments mean so much <3


	8. a boyfriend job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosa helps Gina move apartment

“Are you sure you’re okay with helping out? It’s a pretty big commitment and, if we’re being honest, I can’t say I’d help if the roles were reversed.” Gina asked for the fifth time that day.

It was the Friday before Gina’s moving weekend. It had only been a few days since Jake and Gina made apartment swap arrangements, but they decided to start early and get it over with. It had also been about a week before Gina confessed to being briefly attracted to Boyle in the briefing room in front of everyone, forcing Rosa to laugh it off and hide the cold pang in her chest when the words left Gina’s lips. The latter was less relevant in the grand scheme of things, but Rosa couldn’t get It out of her head. 

“Yes, of course I’m helping, you dummy. Now, shut up so I can finish my work and get home for a decent night’s sleep before you get me up at 6am.” Rosa answered. 

“You’re the best, Rosie.” Gina smiled before granting Rosa’s wishes and returning to her own desk. Gina knew Rosa well and knew how she was fully against pet names and nicknames, but some wild part of her brain knew she could get away with calling her ‘Rosie’. In her head, she had been calling her that for weeks. 

Rosa smiled, looking down at her keyboard, as Gina skipped away. She hoped she’d hear that cringey, childish, embarrassing nickname a few more times that weekend.

Gina asked if Rosa was definitely sure a couple more times during the day, which Rosa answered with the same answer each time. Gina felt less like herself every time she asked, venturing away from the blunt, unaccommodating traits that she was usually associated with. She was becoming less and less shocked each time she acted differently in front of Rosa, slowly accepting the growing crush she had on her best friend. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this in awe of another human being, like, romantic stylez. It had probably happened, she told herself. 

Rosa left work at 7pm, half an hour after Gina left to buy paint and decorating supplies from a ridiculously cheap DIY store she had found online. 7pm was a pretty decent time for Rosa, who often got stressed leaving work undone before he went home for the day. Not like Amy did, where she found it fun and wanted to work as hard as she could, but more in an if-I-don’t-finish-this-It’ll-bother-me-all-night sort of way. Living so close to the precinct, she was home by 7:15, made and eaten her dinner by 8:05, finished with her nightly yoga workout by 8:40, and ready for bed by 9:00. 

\--

Gina and Rosa’s alarms both went off at 6am. Rosa got up easily, used to getting up early. Gina, however, hadn’t been awake this early since high school and was getting flashbacks to oversized denim and getting mistaken for Jake in the hallways by the girl she liked, which was super embarrassing. It was too early for her to even pick up her phone without squinting, until the other girl she liked tried to facetime her.

“What?” Gina croaked down the phone, angling her phone so Rosa could only see her hair and jawline against her pillow.

“Get out of bed. You’re lazy.” Rosa answered. Her face fully on view. Gina assumed she had no makeup on, seeing as her eyeliner was gone and her dark lips were a lighter, rosier pink. 

“Okay.” Gina sighed, putting her phone on her bedside table and ripping her cosy duvet off. “fork you.”

Rosa just laughed, hanging up before Gina could argue. 

It didn’t take Gina long to get ready. She had boxed up most of her stuff, leaving everything she needed balanced on her bedframe and one small chair in the corner of her bedroom. It was weird thinking that this time tomorrow her and Jake would have completely swapped homes, only Jake wouldn’t wake up the glitter and a rail of multicoloured bodysuits.

The removal truck arrived at 7am. Rosa had seen Gina looking online for a removal company that included help with moving her boxes and furniture from the apartment to the van. Before Gina could say anything, Rosa upstairs asking some of the new, young but muscly cops to help out. It was just a request but seeing a leather clad woman with dark eyes and her arms crossed staring into your soul was enough to make anyone agree to anything. Rosa arrived at half past, assisting with some of the heavy lifting. Gina tried not to stare, but Rosa was wearing a short sleeved black shirt and Gina just wanted her to drop the box and have Rosa wrap her arms around her instead.

“Isn’t helping you move a boyfriend job?” Rosa joked before disappearing out of the door. 

\--

“So, what’s the plan?” Rosa asked. They were ahead of schedule, getting all of the boxes moved into Gina’s new apartment by 11am. The two women had gone out to grab some lunch and coffee from a café across the street and were back before midday to start painting. 

Nana’s old apartment didn’t need too much decorating; the walls weren’t neon orange or anything like that. The main living area was just how he left it, with blue walls in one room and a simple floral-patterned wallpaper in the joining room. Gina could work with pattern and she wouldn’t have chosen blue, but she decided she’d leave it as it is for now. The only room she wanted completely redecorating was the bedroom, thinking is was creepy that those same walls saw Jake having sex with weird women he met at Shaw’s

“So, I’m thinking paint the walls white with one black feature wall to hang stuff on.” Gina announced proudly.

“wow, that seems a little understated for your taste.” Rosa raised an eyebrow. 

“I saw a picture on pinterest that looked pretty cool. Also, I’ve ordered a huge beyonce poster to hang on it and got some cute glow in the dark stars for the ceiling.”

“Gina’s back.”

The room wasn’t huge, but it was still a couple of hours before they had even finished their first coat of paint. Both women’s clothes were ruined with flecks of black and white paint, as well as a little pink which neither knew how it got there. Letting the paint dry, Gina and Rosa decided they deserved another snack and more coffee. It would also do their lungs good getting away from the paint fumes.

“We look ridiculous.” Gina giggled, the two of them walking down the street in their paint splattered clothes. Singled out, they looked a bit ridiculous, but this was New York City, and nobody even looked twice at them.

It was no time before they were back in the apartment surrounded by boxes and giving the walls another coat of paint. It was tiring, but Rosa couldn’t think of one better way to be spending her Saturday. Well, she could if it included Gina, but her hypothetical Saturdays still included Gina moving and out of the picture. There was a lull in the conversation, and Rosa’s mind wandered to planning countless hypothetical dates for the two of them. As soon as she realised where her thoughts were going, she snapped herself out of it. She wasn’t ready to discuss feelings with the little voice inside her head yet. 

The sun had set by the time they were completely finished. The two women stood back, admiring their work.

“It might not be perfect, but It was cheap, and we did it, so I love it.” Gina smiled. She had been in an unusually smiley mood all day despite being woken up at the crack of dawn. 

“You can’t sleep in this room tonight, you know?” Rosa told Gina.

“Why not?”

“You’d bet headaches and get dizzy from the paint fumes.”

“Who even knows that?”

“Everyone, Gina.”

Sometimes Rosa felt like she was dealing with a child, not her closest friend who happened to be older than her. It was the same with Jake. It was insane how similar Jake and Gina were. When Rosa first met them, she thought they were siblings, or at the very least, cousins, but no. 

“I’ll sleep on the sofa then.” Gina sighed in defeat. She was kind of excited to sleep in her newly painted room, but also knew that Rosa was right. Rosa was almost always right.

“You cant sleep on that tiny sofa.” Rosa replied, shaking her head.

“You did it!” 

“Yeah but I curl up in my sleep, so it didn’t affect me. You fell asleep at the detective getaway thing last year and you took up the whole couch, which was way bigger than yours.” Rosa argued. Gina blushed at the fact Rosa had watched her sleep. She had no makeup on, and she was sure Rosa must have seen her cheeks turn pink, but Rosa said nothing. Gina had watched Rosa sleep for a little while, in a completely non-creepy way, when she stayed over around Christmastime, and Rosa was right. Despite being a lot taller, Rosa took up very little space. She tucked her legs up and slept with her head resting on her hands. It was adorable. “You can stay at mine.”

“Am I really going to be the first member of the precinct to know where you live?” Gina asked excitedly. 

“Don’t brag.” Rosa dismissed her, leaving to find her bag so they could leave before they both got headaches. Before they left, Rosa also ordered a pizza so it would arrive shortly after they got back to hers. Not to sound like Amy, but Gina had never been more attracted to time management skills.

Gina was in the elevator when she remembered Rosa had obviously come on her motorbike and her heart skipped a beat. They had travelled a lot together, but it had always been on the bus, the metro, someone from work’s car, or walking. Was Rosa going to ask Gina to ride behind her, her arms wrapped rightly around her waste as they rode through the city, or should Gina just offer to get the bus?

Before Gina could decide what to do, Rosa spoke, taking her away from her buzzing brain for a moment.

“Do you have anything against motorbikes?”

“I mean, no.” Gina couldn’t even think of a witty comeback. She never got this nervous.

“I planned ahead and brought a spare helmet if you want to ride on the back.”

Rosa had planned ahead. Rosa had brought a spare helmet for her so they could go back to her apartment for a sleepover. Gina couldn’t help but smile at the fact Rosa had intended on taking her home all day. It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, it was planned. Gina hated how she felt like Amy with how attracted she was to Rosa’s organisation, but she couldn’t help it. 

“Thank you.” Was first decent response that came to Gina’s mind. Her throat was dry, and all she could do was hope that Rosa didn’t pick up on that. 

Rosa gave a thirty second demonstration and list of ruled for getting on the motorbike, and Gina was hooked on every word. 

Rosa got into position first, Gina climbing behind her, their legs aligned, and Gina’s arms wrapped around Rosa’s warm torso. Rosa could feel Gina’s breathe close to her neck, almost making her shiver. She forced herself to not let it distract her. She had a feeling Gina was some sort of superior immortal being, but she didn’t want to risk it with crashing on the road.

Gina, however, had nothing to concentrate on other than holding on tight. With her right hand, she could feel Rosa’s ribcage expanding with every breathe. With her left, she could somehow feel Rosa’s tones abs through her thick leather jacket. 

It felt like the journey had gone way too quickly when Rosa pulled into her parking spot by her building. Gina hoped that perhaps riding together would become a regular thing now that they had successfully got through it once. Rosa had similar ideas, but neither women were going to voice these thoughts anytime soon. All Rosa knew is that she hadn’t let anyone ride with her for years, but she had absolutely no problem with Gina Linetti being way too close to her. 

Rosa’s apartment wasn’t how Gina expected it at all. It was modern, clean, and had cute but subtly flowers and decorations dotted around the main area. Gina soon learnt that Rosa had a sofa that pulled out into a double bed, and Rosa’s plans were starting to make more and more sense.

Both Rosa and Gina were exhausted after such a long day and were in their pyjamas with their teeth brushed not long after getting in. While Gina was using the, Rosa had set up the sofa bed with soft red sheets she had spare. She left a glass of water and a cup of green tea on the coffee table nearby before shouting goodnight to Gina and disappearing to her own bedroom. Her eyes and body were tired, but her brain kept going back to thinking about little things Gina had said and done over the past few weeks.

“Gina?” Rosa called quietly, entering the Livingroom and sleepily leaning against a wall. Gina was sat cross-legged in the bed, her phone in one hand and her mug of hot tea in the other.

“Yes.”

“What did it mean when you said you were briefly attracted to Boyle.” Rosa asked, too tired to instantly regret it and backtrack.

“It was just a joke, Rosie. It meant nothing.” Gina tried to wink, but both of her eyes closed making it look like a hard blink. Maybe that was better, Gina thought afterwards.

“Okay.” Rosa nodded. “Goodnight, Gina.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure I wrote this most of this while I was half asleep but hopefully it's still cute<3


	9. regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake goes undercover + other drama

Gina and Rosa had their first fight since becoming whatever they were. Best friends? Drinking buddies? A married old couple that had no intimacy and just sat drinking tea and microwave meals together? Neither was sure. 

Their fight wasn’t even a real fight. Jake and Amy witnessed the whole thing and decided it was just a small lovers quarrel, but it felt wore for Gina and Rosa.

Rosa had been working on a case surrounding the murder of a nineteen-year-old NYU student for a couple of weeks now. It had been long, gruelling and heart wrenching, leading Rosa’s emotions to leek out of the locked box in the back of her mind. Being so unfamiliar with expressing her emotions, every negative thought just turned her more and more irritable. The case hit her particularly hard when she realised the murder had been accidental. For some reason, it was easier for Rosa to get her head around a psychotic serial killer than it was a group of teenage boys who got caught up with the wrong crowds and turning to drugs and violence. 

Gina was completely unaware of this particular case, as Rosa had never known when the right time to bring it up was. She was terrified she’d bawl her eyes out in front of the witty, stone cold beauty she had somehow ended up being incredibly close with. 

“So I was thinking about this dope prank idea where we sell Charles on eBay,” Gina began talking, sitting on the edge of Rosa’s desk. “How are we going to trick a random stranger into paying money or a strange, small, peculiar, strange, weird, almost Guinea pig-like man? We sell him as a chef, but just leave out the fact he sometimes brings in weird foot stew into work- “

“Gina, I’m busy.” Rosa grunted.

“That can wait, my prank proposal is clearly the most important project in this century so far, I dare say.” Gina responded, not reading Rosa as well as she usually did. To be fair, Rosa was usually instantly put into a good mood when Gina was within a five-foot radius of her.

“You’re saying your dumb ideas are more important than getting justice for the murder of a teenage college student?” Rosa snapped. Gina’s heart sunk, instantly realising she came to this conversation with the wrong energy. “I’m busy, okay? Go and get some work done for once or something.”

Gina nodded, her mouth too dry to respond. Her mouth tried to apologise, but it was inaudible. After a mini pep talk and almost cry session in the bathroom, Gina returned to her desk where she didn’t say a word until Jake took her aside to quickly tell her he was going undercover. She was heartbroken, of course, but had gotten used to hiding her feelings at work. It wasn’t long before Holt called the detectives into his office, breaking the news to them before their shift ended for the night. 

Rosa hated that her first thought when hearing the news wasn’t fear of Jake’s safety. They had been friends since being in the academy together, which was a lot for Rosa who spends half of her life only having friends for three months, so they didn’t learn too much about her. The first person who Rosa’s heart hurt for was Gina. It was a small throb, but she felt it. She knew how close Jake and Gina were. They were practically siblings. She hated knowing that at this moment, Gina knew her brother was going away for six months and her other closest friend wasn’t on speaking terms with her. Rosa wanted to apologise before they went to the bar but didn’t get the chance. She couldn’t seem to find the right moment at Shaw’s, either, as Terry and Charles were always around. There was no way Rosa was going to pour her heart out in front of those overemotional dummies, so she just filled the empty feeling inside with beer. 

“You’re so lucky, you’ve never been through a painful breakup.” Charles said to Rosa, leaning on the bar.

“The only reason they haven’t been painful is because the guys were all losers. I’ve never dated anyone good.” Rosa responded. It was true, and she hadn’t really admitted it to herself before she heard herself say the words out loud. She never let herself go for the people who would make her happiest, and at that moment, she vowed to try and let people get closer to her so maybe one day she could find love. She had also had about four beers, so whether she followed through with this promise in the morning was questionable.

Rosa and Boyle sat in a comfortable silence for a little while, drinking and taking advantage of the background noises and music in the bar. It was around half an hour later when Rosa said her goodbyes, leaving before eleven to make sure she was awake for her early optician appointment the following morning. She didn’t say why she was leaving to her friends, though. They weren’t going to learn that Rosa wore contacts and had a pair of bright red glasses sat on her dresser at home. She looked over to Gina before she walked out to get her taxi, hoping she could somehow give an apology through looks alone, but Gina was talking to Charles.

Terry left a little while after Rosa, leaving Gina and Charles to sit and drown their sorrows in alcohol together. Gina was overthinking so many things at once. Her head was spinning with thoughts of Rosa, thoughts of her arguments with Rosa, thoughts of apologising to Rosa, thoughts of falling asleep on Rosa’s sofa, and of course thoughts of selling Boyle on eBay again and worrying about Jake’s safety.

It was probably the whole bottle of wine Gina had drunk that evening talking, but she was starting to think the highest bidder on her Charles auction wouldn’t be in the worst situation in the world. Charles’ inappropriateness and annoyingness was overpowering, but Gina could occasionally see past that and see that Charles was just a guy who loved his friends and wanted what was best for everyone.   
“You’re not bad, you know, Chorles.” Gina slurred, resting her head on her friend’s shoulder.

“Try telling Vivian that.” Charles argued.

“Shut up about her. She was a weirdo soil muncher anyway.” Gina giggled, somehow amused at the word muncher.

\--

Gina woke up on the wrong side of her bed. The light was streaming through the curtains, but she was laying face down into her pillow and her auburn hair was surrounding her and blocking the sun. reluctantly, she lifted her throbbing head up from her pillow. She looked over and made eye contact with Charles Boyle. It was early and she had a huge hangover, but she couldn’t stop herself from screaming.

Charles Boyle was in her bed. She had underwear on at this point, thank god, and she couldn’t fully remember them having sex the night before, thank god, but right now a half-naked Charles Boyle was sharing her duvet while all she was wearing was a neon pink underwear set.

“Do you remember anything?” Gina asked, not moving an inch.

“I mean, a little- “

“Shut up, that’s disgusting!”

“You asked me.”

“Yes, but I didn’t want you to answer. 

Charles thought carefully about what to say next. As much as Gina made fun of him, he respected her and the last thing he wanted to do was make his female co-worker uncomfortable in her own home. 

“I remember us deciding we needed a glass of water to help sober up, and you were convinced the only place that had water in the city was our apartment,” Charles began speaking calmly, and Gina listened. “I don’t remember specific details after that, but I remember it not being bad.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.” Gina rolled her eyes. She was so embarrassed to the point that trying to put Boyle down would do nothing for her. 

“I’ll go, then.” Charles said.

“Wait,” Gina interrupted. “You turn around, I’ll get up and get my robe, then I’ll get us some coffee and painkillers while you get changed okay?”

“Okay.” Charles nodded before turning towards the window.

Gina put her heads in her hands and silently screamed for a moment before wrapping her robe around her in record speed time. 

Charles was surprised but grateful that Gina had been okay with this. His greatest fear was that she’d think he took advantage of her, but fortunately, that thought had never even crossed her mind.

“So, we never bring this up again and if you breathe a word of this to anyone, I get to tell the whole briefing toom that you slept with Hitchcock?” Gina clarified. 

Gina had sat at her kitchen table while Charles leant on a nearby counter while they discussed what they’d do going further. Both agreed it wasn’t quite the worst experience of their life but definitely didn’t want a repeat of it. 

Surprisingly, it was Charles who came up with the threat of saying he’d slept with Hitchcock. He knew his tendencies to spill everything to Jake, so brought up the idea before Gina could think about Jake. Charles knew there was something going on with Gina that made her upset enough to drink so much. He suspected it was something other than Jake’s FBI work, but thought it would be better to distract her from that as well.

Once their coffee cups were empty, Charles awkwardly thanks Gina for the medicine and drink before letting himself out. 

As soon as the apartment was empty, Gina went back to her room and stripped her bed, wanting to wash her sheets as soon as possible. She was grateful that her new apartment had a washer and she didn’t have to wait until the next time she went to the laundromat. She was still kind of tired, seeing as she got in late and woke up early, so ended up napping on the couch while her sheets were getting cleaned. 

It was around 10 am when Gina woke up and the only thing she wanted to do was see Rosa. They needed to talk. Both Gina and her best friend repressed the hell out of their feelings, and she knew that for once she needed to be the bigger person and make herself vulnerable for a second. Gina quickly showered and threw on the clothes she had worn the day before, not giving herself time to find a new outfit. As she was locking her door, she realised she was wearing one of Rosa’s hoodies. It was a deep maroon and Rosa had let her borrow it one night when it suddenly got really cold and all Gina had was a thin, wolf printed cardigan. She smiled at the memory before powerwalking out of her building and to the nearest subway station. 

Stood outside Rosa’s door, Gina didn’t stop to think before knocking hard on the door. She quickly came to her senses and wished she had given herself more time to decide what to say, but by that time she could hear footsteps.

The door opened, and Gina and Rosa were face to face for the first time in almost 24 hours.

“Rosie, I’m so sorry for being such a bitch. I know what I say isn’t important and your job is literally saving lives and keeping everyone safe and- “ Gina was interrupted by Rosa pulling her into a tight hug. Gina’s wasn’t quite tall enough to rest on Rosa’s shoulder, so settled being squashed just below. Rosa smelled like lavender and vanilla scented soap.

“I’m sorry for being so rude to you yesterday. I don’t know how to process emotions, so they just turn into anger.” Rosa admitted, quietly. “Don’t repeat this to anyone because it sounds dumb but listening to you talk about nothing for hours makes all of my days a bit brighter.”

Gina’s crush on Rosa just kept intensifying.

“Rosa, I’m diseased.” Gina announced, being characteristically dramatic. 

“You don’t have lice again, do you?” Rosa frowned, pushing Gina away, but still holding her shoulders firmly.

“No, and I told you that in confidence, and it was one time! Please stop bringing it up.”

“What is it, then?”

“I need to sit down.” Gina walked into the apartment, knowing it pretty well after visiting a few times now. Rosa hadn’t moved yet; which Gina was going to call a win. 

The two women sat in their usual positions, opposite ends of a long sofa, facing each other. 

“I slept with Boyle.” Gina noticeably cringed when she said the words aloud.

Rosa’s heart felt like it was twisting, and she hated it. How could she be protective of her straight best friend who she didn’t even have that many feelings for? Boyle was a good guy, so it wasn’t like Gina had slept with one of her dirtbag ex-fiancés. Rosa had no logical reason to be feeling like this, but she did anyway.

Maybe Rosa did have more feelings than she originally thought for her loud, melodramatic co-worker.

“It’s never happening again and we both promised not to tell anyone, but I had to tell you. I tell you so much these days, it's embarrassing.” Gina assured her, seeing an uneasy facial expression fall on Rosa’s face.

Gina and Rosa sat and talked for about an hour, completely clearing up their little fight and joking about it in the end. They also discussed the Boyle situation, much to Gina’s disgust. Rosa even started joking about that in the end, but Gina wasn’t over it yet. They talked about Jake and managed to open up a little bit about how scared they were.

Rosa was glad that she was finally opening up to another human being, and Gina was glad that she hadn’t ruined their friendship with her insensitive chatter. Gina didn’t mind if Rosa never liked her back, she could happily spend her life just being there for her friend and making sure she was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me trying to spend over five minutes writing about sad dianetti? sounds fake ... only there will definitely be more of it coming lol  
> comments mean a LOT so please let me know if you have any thoughts <3


	10. sad tears, happy tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosa spends the day cheering up and distracting Gina

Gina knew that although she was independent and intimidating, she could still allow herself to be vulnerable sometimes, but that didn’t mean he wanted people to know she was upset.

Growing up, Jake had always been the one who cried the most in their friendship. Whether it was happy or sad tears, Jake cried at movies, songs, sad headlines, cute old people feeding pigeons at the park. Every time she did it, she regretted it, but Gina had a tendency to just bottle up her emotions until the bottle smashed and her emotions exploded all at once. 

It had been over five months since Jake had gone undercover. Sometimes Gina would smile at little daydreams of Jake living out his dream as an undercover detective; the kind of dreams they talked about when they were twelve at sleepovers. As time passed, her daydreams turned into ten-minute worrying sessions she had behind her desk, trying her best to keep her face neutral. Jake was like the favourite cousin that you waited to arrive at family gatherings, as well as a loving, supportive brother. Sure, she didn’t tell Jake everything that was going on in her life anymore, but they were still just as close as they had always been. It broke her heart knowing that Jake might not come back the same person she knew, or even come back at all. 

Today was one of the days Gina was going into silent panic mode behind her desk. It wasn’t a logical panic that she could talk herself out of, like worrying that Jake might do something stupid, then telling herself that he was well trained, and he was being protected by the literal FBI. Today, she was just incredibly sad and missed her idiot best friend. She wanted to hug him and watch die hard with him and tell him everything he’s missed. Gina couldn’t remember the last time she had been this upset and it scared her. When she realised her eyes were stinging like somebody was chopping onions inches away from her, she got up and walked straight towards the bathrooms. The only person who saw into her eyes properly was Holt, as he was leaving the elevator just as she went through the gate, but he understood completely and said nothing. 

Gina stood facing the mirror, lightly patting her tears under her eyes so they didn’t smudge her makeup. She had switched to waterproof mascara after the first month of Jake being gone, but no amount of setting powder was getting rid of her little tearstains. Gina then tried smiling in the mirror, convincing herself that she was fine. It wasn’t really working, though. 

She didn’t want to be sad. She wished she didn’t overthink everything and could just be happy for Jake, but she couldn’t. 

After a few minutes, the bathroom door slowly opened. In a predominantly male office, there were only a couple of people it could be.

“Hey, Rosie.” Gina croaked, making eye contact with Rosa through the in the reflection of the mirror trying to sound put together but sounding like she had somehow just woken up and taken a breath from a helium balloon. 

“Do you need anything?” Rosa asked sincerely, not daring to come any closer to Gina. Sure, they had gotten a lot closer over the past year, but Rosa had never seen her tearfully upset about something like this. 

“You don’t have to keep your distance, you know? I’m not a robot, I cry sometimes.” Gina tried to laugh, but it just ended up with her crying harder.

Rosa cautiously stepped closer to Gina, sympathetically placing her hand over Gina’s on the bathroom sink. She was stood next to Gina now, and Gina tilted her head to gently lean on Rosa’s shoulder. The two women just stood in front of the mirror, stealing glances, until Gina stopped hiccupping with sobs.

Just as Gina was calming down and drying her eyes, she started again.

“I’m so sorry, Rosie. I don’t know what’s gotten over me.” Gina apologised, crying through her smile again. 

“Come here.” Rosa moved her hand up to lightly grab Gina’s wrist and pulling her towards the wall. Rosa slid down, sitting on the dirty bathroom floor and beckoning Gina to join her, which she did, of course. Rosa wrapped an arm around Gina and held her close to her, letting her tears and foundation stain her black button-up shirt. Before Rosa had left to find Gina, the rest of the squad had been looking over at Rosa, knowing she’d be the one to see if Gina was okay, so Rosa knew nobody would question the makeup on her clothes. 

“That was embarrassing.” Gina said, sitting up properly about five minutes later when she was breathing normally again.

“Shut up, it wasn’t. I’ve cried, Charles has cried, we’ve probably all cried,” Rosa admitted, looking at Gina. “Except Scully. He asked me where Jake was the other day. I don’t know how that guy still has a job.”

“Thank you for taking care of me.” Gina smiled, looking away a little.

“It’s nothing. I mean, you’d do the same for me, right?” Rosa asked, hoping the feeling was mutual.

“Oh, of course. I’d turn up with a care package and everything.”

“You wouldn’t.” Rosa frowned.

“Oh, I would.”

Rosa couldn’t decide if Gina was being serious or not, but either way, she was glad Gina was feeling better to at least have that cute, sneaky look in her eyes.

“Hey, what are you doing after work?” Rosa asked Gina as they walked back to their desk’s together.

“Nothing, why?”

“I’m not doing a lot, just going grocery shopping and going to yoga, but do you want to come? It might take your mind off things? It’s stupid, it doesn’t matter.” Rosa rambled.

“Sure, I’d love to.” Gina agreed without thinking twice. 

“Dope.” Rosa nodded before they separated, getting back to work.

\--

“Rosie, should we just share a shopping cart and then just sort our stuff out at the checkout?” Gina asked as they entered the store. 

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. It’s kind of busy.” Rosa nodded. She had already got a kart, so Gina just followed. 

Rosa hadn’t gone grocery shopping with another person since she slept on her sister’s couch for a month in 2004. After that, she had said never again, but shopping with Gina was actually fun. They had made a system where Rosa pushed the kart and got some of the stuff from shelves while Gina went running off and returned with armfuls of harder to access stuff from the fridges and freezers. After a while, Gina had got tired of her frozen food relay and decided to walk alongside Rosa, linking her arm. Rosa was glad that Gina wasn’t facing her, so couldn’t see how pink her cheeks had turned.

Gina hadn’t made a conscious decision to link arms with Rosa, and by the time it hit her, she decided it would be more awkward to unlink, which was fine. She didn’t mind linking arms with Rosa Diaz one bit. Looking around at other groups or couples shopping, Gina wondered what people would think if they saw her and Rosa linking arms. Would they think they were just two friends getting groceries together or girlfriends? 

Gina was in her own little world for a few minutes, daydreaming about unpacking groceries in the kitchen she shared with her hypothetical wife. It was embarrassing, but it was all in her head so nobody would ever know she was secretly as passionate about home organisation as Amy is. 

She was pulled out of her daydream when she heard a familiar voice call her name. a little disoriented and unsure on who was shouting, Gina looked across the aisle.

“Regina.” A smiley woman shouted again, waving from a few feet away. 

“who’s that?” Rosa asked. Their heads were still pretty close together and the store was busy, so Rosa could ask as they walked closer to the woman.

“My sister.” Gina replied

“You have a sister?” Rosa asked, kind of impressed that Gina had been more secretive than her. Gina could probably remember Rosa’s sister and nieces’ names from conversations they’d had.

“Yeah, kind of. I’ll explain later.”

Seconds later, Rosa and Gina were stood beside Gina’s sister, all three of them blocking the frozen pizza section.

“Lauren, hey, what are you doing here? Does Long Island not sell margarita mix?” Gina joked, reluctantly giving her sister a hug, then gesturing to her shopping basket. 

“Oh, I’m just in the city seeing some of my girlfriends while the kids are at their Dad’s place for the weekend.” Lauren replied, a huge smile still painted on her face. Her smile was a lot like Gina’s, so Rosa, of course, thought it was beautiful, but it was still a little unsettling. Rosa wasn’t sure she had ever seen anyone smile as much as the woman before her. 

“Oh, cool.” Gina nodded.

“Introduce me to your friend, sis.” Lauren said, her smile now directed at Rosa.

Gina cringed at the small, insinuating eyebrow raise that appeared on her sister’s face when she said the word ‘friend’. Gina had never officially come out to her Dad’s side of the family, but for some reason, Lauren could always read Gina like a book and she didn’t like it one bit.

“This is Rosa, we’re friends from work. We work with Jake as well. You remember Jake, right.”

“Yeah, I remember Jake, that kid with fluffy hair and nose ring, right?” Lauren said, not really waiting for an answer. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Rosa!”

“You too.” Rosa manages to say. It’s probably the friendliest thing she’s said to an almost-stranger before. 

“So, I’ll see you soon, maybe.” Gina interrupted, lightly pushing into Rosa’s side to make her push the card forward. 

“You should come over for dinner sometime! Anthony has been asking about his cool aunt Gina.”

“Okay, so I’ll text you.”

Gina and Lauren said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Technically, they both needed to go the same way, but Gina made sure they didn’t.

“What was that all about?” Rosa frowned, not that Gina could see her facial expression. Sometime between then and when hugging Lauren, Gina’s arm had ended up linked with Rosa’s again.

“Oh, nothing really. We’re not close, like, at all. She’s a couple of years older than me and my Mom was out Dad’s first girlfriend after him and Lauren’s mom got divorced. He and my mom broke up a couple of months after I was born, and he ended up going back to his ex-wife and I had to go for an awkward family dinner every Sunday.” Gina tried to explain as clearly as she could.

“Oh, like on Gilmore Girls.” Rosa shrugged.

“You haven’t made me watch that episode of Gilmore Girls yet, so I don’t know.” Gina rolled her eyes.

“Jokes aside, that sucks. I know I complain about my family a lot, but I am grateful we don’t have a lot of drama.” 

“It does kind of suck, but I’m really close with my mom so it's fine.”

They didn’t spend much longer in the store after that, making their way to the checkout, then carrying their bags to Gina’s apartment. Gina’s was closer to where Rosa went to yoga, so they decided they might as well go from there.

\--

“Hey, can I just leave my bag on your sofa or something?” Rosa asked, leaving the bathroom after getting changed.

Gina couldn’t deny how attracted she was to Rosa and it was embarrassing. There was no way he could pin her feelings on just wanting a close friend now because friends didn’t get butterflies seeing another friend in a pair of dark grey leggings and a black, strappy sports bra. Gina had known Rosa for years and she had seen her a few times in tight-fitting clothes, but this was different. Gina was stood in her apartment opposite the woman she thought had to be the hottest woman on the planet. 

Rosa saw Gina checking her out but pretended not to. She wasn’t sure if it was because she couldn’t quite believe it was happening or that she didn’t want to embarrass Gina, but either way, Rosa was too busy focusing on making sure she didn’t blush. 

“You look hot, girl.” Gina admitted after a few too many seconds. She tried to say it in a playful, supportive friend way but ended up sounding genuine and flirtatious.  
“You don’t look too bad yourself.” Rosa smirked, looking Gina up and down. She decided that if Gina could unapologetically check her out, why not do the same back?

Gina’s yoga outfit included leopard print leggings, a pastel pink vest top, and a pair of converse. If anyone else had worn leopard print leggings, Rosa would have thought they looked a complete mess, but they were so Gina and Rosa thought she looked perfect.

“Anyway, yeah, you can leave your stuff anywhere and then we can get going?” Gina suggested, a little flustered while putting her hair up into a messy bun.

Rosa had never seen this much of Gina’s face at one time, used to her flowing locks framing her face.

“Stop staring, weirdo.” Gina rolled her eyes. “And if you tell anyone I wore my hair up, I’ll sell your kidneys on eBay.”

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.”

The two women left the apartment, Gina locking up behind them and racing to get to the elevator with Rosa before the doors shut. Rosa’s yoga studio wasn’t far at all. They were fast walkers, and after five minutes they could see if across the street.

“Okay, so we don’t talk to any of these dummies. We set up our mats at the back and give people death stares.” Rosa told Gina, preparing her. This was the first time she had ever brought anyone to yoga with her before. People were always shocked when they found out yoga was something she did most days and chose to keep it from them, but part of Rosa was really excited to walk in there with her leopard clad friend who was definitely not going to stay quiet at the back. Death stares, definitely, but Gina not making loud comments every five minutes would be an unrealistic expectation. 

Gina was not good at yoga at all, but she made sure to dramatically attempt impossible poses. At least she thought they were impossible until she turned to see Rosa balancing on her hands with her legs crossed in some crazy position. 

Gina thought Rosa looked like a crazy contortionist angel, weirdly, that was the moment she realised she was in love.

Gina Linetti was in love with Rosa Diaz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> most of this chapter was messy and uneventful but hopefully the ending made up for it!! they are so cute i want to CRY i miss gina so much!!
> 
> also i wrote in a sister for Gina because she's mentioned her nephew before in the show but had never mentioned siblings so it makes sense to me that she has a sibling she's not close with on her dad's side of the family. I'm not going to make a big thing deal about her, i just wanted a sibling already introduced for a future chapter idea.


	11. hair kisses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jake returns from being undercover

The day Jake came back from being undercover, Gina was at Karen Peralta’s house. She’d been visiting and having dinner with Jake’s mom every week since he left, the two of them being there for each other, reminiscing, and gossiping. Gina had always been close with Karen and would go to her for advice as a teenager if she didn’t want her own mother to lecture her, but she hadn’t really spent this much time with her alone since her early twenties. It was nice. Gina hadn’t really grown up with a dad, so Karen was like a second mother. Having so many strong women in her upbringing had been really important to Gina growing up, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way. She and Jake hadn’t needed male role models in their lives to become the interesting, strong, self-sufficient people they were today. 

Gina was helping Karen clear away their empty bowls of mac and cheese when she got the text from Jake saying he was stood outside her apartment with nowhere to go. She had been his emergency contact in the city, so that’s where he was dropped off after he was free. Gina told Karen, the two hugging tighter than ever before and staining each other’s cardigans with tears before Gina went to pick him up and bring him back to his mother’s house. Karen stayed behind, deciding she’d rather reunite with her son where she could sit down and give him a hot, home-cooked meal. 

It worked out well that Gina was at Karen’s because Gina didn’t have her own car and Gina was insured to let her, Jake and Darlene drive it. As Gina shut the door and walked towards the car, she called Rosa and put her on loudspeaker as she drove. Her heart was pounding, and a phone call with Rosa could calm her down. 

When Gina parked her car outside her apartment block, Rosa was still on the phone. The car ride had been twenty minutes, which isn’t a lot, but still probably one of the longest phone call Rosa had been part of. Gina put the phone off speaker, holding it to her ear while she went up the elevator to her apartment. She couldn’t hear Rosa at this point, as she was making a smoothie and the sound of the blender was overpowering her voice, but knowing she was there somehow made Gina immensely happy.

“Gina!” Jake shouted as she turned the corner. He was sat on the floor playing on an old Nokia phone outside her apartment but shot up immediately when he saw her.

“What on god’s green one is that phone?” Gina asked before saying hello or saying any of the things she had wanted to say to her best friend for months. 

“This was the only phone they let me have when I left and the only game it has is snake. My real phone is in Holt’s desk.” Jake replied.

There was a silence for a little while, Jake making the most of the first real hug in months.

“Oh, by the way, Rosa’s on the phone.” Gina remembered, outing her back on speaker.

“Sup, Jake. Witness any murders?” Rosa asked.

“Nope, but I saw this one guy get a pretty nasty rash.”

“Dope. See you soon, man” Rosa said before hanging up. 

Jake and Gina made their way to the car, practically linking arms the way they did when they were first allowed into the city alone at thirteen. A Taylor Swift song was already playing on the radio when they started driving back to Jake’s Mom’s, and it was perfect. They both sang wildly, talking again when the song switched to an artist neither of them recognised.

“So, are you and Rosa still spending a load of time together?” Jake asked. Gina had her eyes on the road but could guess what his facial expression was doing. 

“We missed you.” Gina tried to take the conversation a different way.

“And you’re still saying you’re only friends?” Gina was sure of his facial expressions at this point.

Jake had known Gina had liked girls since forever, just like Gina had known he was attracted to guys. They had never really come out together and had never discussed or use labels together, but both just assumed the other was bisexual. They talked about celebrity crushes and real crushes throughout their teenage years and it was just something they presumed everyone did until they started going to bars and saw each other making out with people of the same gender.

“Yes, Jake, we’re just friends.” Gina rolled her eyes.

Jake had made a few comments about her and Rosa before he left, and she thought maybe she’d get some peace and quiet from the topic once he went undercover, but that wasn’t the case. He had obviously told Karen about them, and Gina had made it through numerous conversations with Jake’s mother subtly telling her she supported her and that she should go after who she loved. Slightly less full on than Jake, but still unnecessary. 

The only time Gina had reacted to these comments was the day after she realised she was in love with Rosa. Gina had come over for dinner and when Karen had said: “I love you like a daughter, Gina, and I just want you to meet somebody who makes you happy.” Gina just smiled and told her not to worry. It was a moment of weakness.

Gina stayed the night on the floor of Jake’s old bedroom, Karen insisting it was too late by the time they had all stopped catching up that night. Jake offered her the bed, but Gina insisted he hadn't slept in a bed that was truly his for way too long and continued to get an inflatable bed ready. 

\---

The next day, Karen was going into Brooklyn anyway, so she dropped Gina and Jake off at work. They felt like little kids again, getting dropped off at school and being given a couple of dollars to get a healthy snack.

There were tears from Boyle, giant bear hugs from Terry, and proud nods from Holt. Gina locked eyes with Amy across the office, who’s eyes were filled with emotions and relief. Gina knew what it meant but didn’t say anything. Amy was grateful.

Rosa was working a case for most of the day, so Gina only really got to talk to her that evening when they went to Shaw’s and celebrated Jake returning to the nine nine. 

“I’m glad Jake’s back.” Rosa said, sitting next to Gina at the bar.

“You won’t have to deal with me being a dramatic little bench anymore.” Gina laughed into her vodka and coke, giggling a little. 

“You’re always a dramatic little bench, but with Jake being gone it was justified. I’m always here for you if you’re upset, okay? I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night. You’re the only person who knows where I live for a reason.”

“Aw, Rosie is being soft.” Gina rested her head in her hand, looking into Rosa’s dark eyes. At this moment of time, she didn’t care if Rosa didn’t love her the way she was in love. She would happily live with a fraction of her heart aching if it meant Rosa was always in her life, always one phone call or train ride away. 

“If being soft means caring about you, then you’re right.” Rosa replied, only somewhat reluctantly.

“I’m always here for you too, Rosie. If there’s ever anything on your mind, just know you can spill it all out to me and I won’t breathe a word to another soul. Not even Beyoncé.” Gina replied, tapping her finger on Gina’s nose. The two women were both a bit tipsy at this point.

“You booped me.” Rosa responded, furrowing her eyebrows a little, but not looking annoyed in the slightest. She was just caught off guard, but she always was around Gina. It was hard enough to keep track of Gina’s antics, and Rosa being distracted by Gina’s gorgeous smile and auburn curls made it a lot harder. 

“I did.” Gina nodded, giving Rosa a flash of that smile that drained every drop of sadness from her body automatically.

Gina and Rosa chatted a while, turning to watch their friends dance a couple of times. They were mainly talking about meaningless things like the weather and laundry, but it didn’t matter as long as they were talking to each other. 

While Rosa was talking about her new favourite strawberry flavoured dish soap, Gina got distracted by daydreams of her and Rosa washing dishes together after a cute night in before going to bed together. It was one of the first times Gina had genuinely considered wanting to spend her entire life with Rosa Diaz and is scare her. Gina had been engaged numerous times, but she had never genuinely thought about longer than a month in the future with each of her fiancés. Her motto was to live in the moment, and she thought that made sense until now. 

“Regina Linetti?” Rosa snapped Gina out of her little daydream. The first thing Gina thought about was how hot Rosa sounded saying her full name, and it was in that moment that she decided to switch to lemonade and never have more than four drinks around Rosa again. 

As the night went on, the group made their way to a booth in the car, all of them sat together in one place instead of dotted around the bar. Gina and Rosa were both in a corner with people on both sides. Their arms were pushed together, and their legs were fumbling against each other under the table. At some point during their chat, Gina rested her head lightly on Rosa’s shoulder. It made sense, Rosa was taller, and her shoulder was literally right there. Despite this, Holt gave Gina a knowing look. Of course, nobody else would have noticed the subtle change in the distance between his pupils and eyebrows, but to Gina, it was blindingly obvious. And probably to Amy, too. Gina and Rosa were the only two who could translate holt’s facial expressions and Gina hoped to her female, ethnically ambiguous god that Amy hadn’t seen anything. 

Terry, Charles and Jake were the first to leave, leaving Holt with the ladies, which wasn’t a position Holt was usually left in. After one last drink, Holt and Amy went to call for ways to get back, Holt calling his husband and Amy calling her most cost-effective and energy efficient taxi driver. 

Rosa and Gina were left alone again. Tonight, Rosa was a tired drunk. Her eyelids had been fluttering for the for the past fifteen minutes and Gina thought It was adorable. Rosa slowly learnt into Gina, eventually ended up resting on her chest with her head under Gina’s chin. Gina couldn’t help but stroke Rosa’s soft hair as she nestled closer. Gina didn’t want to ever leave that moment. It was so perfect and such an unusual state for Rosa, but still perfectly Rosa. 

Gina couldn’t help but kiss the top of Rosa’s head, her lips on her dark, somehow warm, curls. Afterwards, she tilted her head and replaced her lips for her cheek. When she looks up again, she sees Amy. Rosa didn’t really know what was going on, half asleep and cosy inside the bad, but Amy had presumably seen it all and was still seeing Rosa cuddle Gina in a seemingly non-platonic way.

“I ordered a taxi for us two, that’s right, isn’t it?” Amy asked, breaking the ice.

“Yeah, that’s cool. I texted Kevin earlier and he said he’s drop Rosa off.” Gina told Amy.

Gina was kind of abusing her power of knowing Rosa’s address, but she knew Kevin was trustworthy. She also knew that Rosa was way too out of it to know who had taken her home, so she wouldn’t do anything about it the next day.

 

“Hey, Rosie, wake up.” Gina whispered loudly down Rosa’s ear and shaking her lightly while Amy took the glasses back to the bar. Every single time they went out everyone told Amy that they didn’t need to return the glasses and that it was someone’s job to clear up, but Amy insisted it was only polite. 

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Rosa groaned. She wasn’t really asleep, just a little dreamy.

Kevin arrived and picked up Rosa and his husband after a little while, Amy and Gina’s taxi arriving soon after. 

“So, you and Gina-“ Amy began once they were both sat un the back of a cab.

“Please don’t, Amy. I know I make fun of you a lot and I’m sorry but I can’t do this right now.”

“Don’t worry, I was just going to say that I won’t say anything.” Amy reassured her, putting her hand over Gina’s in the middle seat and giving it a supportive squeeze. “I know we’re not close, but I’ve got your back.”

“Thanks, Amy. It means a lot.” Gina smiles, leaning back in her seat. “And nothing’s going on. This isn’t a scandalous love affair, we’re just really close and I’m just overthinking and… whatever.”

“Stop being nice to me, it’s weird.” Amy laughs.

“Okay, weirdo.” Gina rolled her eyes.

Gina and Amy knew all along that they had each other’s backs. Amy was used to getting mocked by her brothers, and she kind of loved having someone at work to annoy her but still love her unconditionally as well. On her first day at work, she hoped she’d maybe be close friends with her partner, but never did she think she’d think of the civil administrator as one of her best friends. The whole precinct was close, and they all loved it, but only Charles and Terry would ever actually admit it sober.

As soon as she got home, Gina texted Rosa to see if she got home okay, but assumed she was asleep already. Before Gina could worry too much about Rosa and about their night, she was asleep too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to dedicate the first chapter to Mr Terry Crews. Not everyone needs male role models in their life and fork you if you think that. 
> 
> Also, I feel like every chapter ends with everyone leaving Shaw's and I'm annoying myself because it's SO REPETITIVE I'm sorry I'll stop soon lol <3 I'm about to be repetitive again but LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK in the comments


	12. sharing beds like little kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dianetti at the beach house

Rosa had been super busy with cases recently, and neither Rosa or Gina mentioned it, but they were really excited to spend some time together at the beach house. Sure, they loved the precinct getaways every year and it was fun to spend time with everyone away from the same few locations in NYC, but Rosa and Gina were definitely each other’s favourite co-workers. 

Rosa and Gina didn’t really care that Jake brought Holt to the beach house. Both women pretended to for the sake of fitting in, but they were more focused on each other. Gina was especially unbothered, hardly noticing everyone else when the woman she was falling head over heels in love with was in the room. 

The first hour or so was spent lounging around on the sofas. Gina was laid across the seat, her legs resting on the armrest when Rosa signalled for her to move over and make room for her. Everyone was used to their closeness at this point. Yes, they got the odd knowing look from Jake or Holt and often got intense heart eyes from Charles, but it didn’t mean much. It’s not like they were dating.

Amy’s looks had been previously kept to a minimum, but since the night at Shaw’s when Amy saw Gina kiss Rosa’s hair, Amy had been making eye contact with Gina with facial expressions similar to a puppy. After a little while, Gina couldn’t cope with Amy’s eyes anymore. She had really witnessed Gina’s moment of weakness and it made Gina feel vulnerable. 

“I’m going to start making the dinner.” Gina announced, standing up. Everyone looked a bit shocked as if she wouldn’t follow through with her promise to cook pasta for them all. 

“I’ll come and keep you company.” Rosa shrugged, following her from the sofa to the kitchen area. 

Charles had brought every ingredient Gina had requested, and Gina mentally thanked him for it. While Rosa hoisted herself up to sit on one of the kitchen counters, her legs dangling and lightly kicking against the cabinets beneath. Gina tried to shake the cute, domestic, future married life thoughts out of her head. She didn’t want to be imagining a future where she taught Rosa how to cook Italian food but being in this incredibly homely kitchen and seeing Rosa sat there, being her beautiful self, made that a hard task. 

“What can I help you with?” Rosa asked, seeing Gina with the bag of ingredients. 

“Are you any good at finely slicing garlic?” Gina asked, although really, she knew Rosa would be great at it. Since finding old medical textbooks in Rosa’s apartment and finding out she dropped out of med school, Gina realised Rosa was a gorgeous genius who was capable of anything.

“Sure, but Boyle has a garlic press, you know?” 

“Yes, Rosie, I am fully aware of that, but my great grandmother didn’t have a garlic press in her day and we’re sticking to the exact recipe.”

“You’re letting me help with family recipes? You must really like me.” Rosa mocked.

It wasn’t a lie. Far from a lie, in fact. Gina didn’t know if it was the calmness of being away from the city or if it was seeing Rosa slice garlic so perfectly, but she felt like she was falling more in love by the second.

Once Rosa had finished doing what Gina had ordered her to, she put some music on. Before any words in the song had been said, Gina was already dancing and singing along to the tune while frying onions. Rosa was stood behind her, and she couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto her face. Rosa could watch Gina dance for hours, and she probably had If you added up every time Gina had danced in her presence. It had been about a week since Rosa made a playlist of songs she associated with Gina and she had barely stopped listening to it since. 

“So, you and Holt’s nephew.” Gina brought up after the song.

Rosa had really hoped it wouldn’t come up, but it did. 

It had been over a year since Rosa had properly dated someone, and she wasn’t going to admit to herself that Gina was the reason for this, but of course, she was. Gina was so intertwined in Rosa’s life and Rosa couldn’t even be mad at it this point. Rosa wasn’t entirely sure when the crush had started, but when she thought about it, she had been prioritising hanging out with Gina over dinner and a movie with random guys or women since their first evening out watching a Christmas movie on that summer’s day. 

When Rosa met Marcus, in the precinct, she thought he wasn’t bad. He was no Gina Linetti, but who was? They ended up going on a date and finding their way back to his bedroom, only to be caught by Kevin and Holt. It was arguably one of the most embarrassing moments of Rosa’s life. Nobody was really sure how this information was spread throughout the office, but it was.

“It’s nothing.” Rosa replied, honestly. “We slept together once, that first time we went out, and then I told him I didn’t think we shouldn’t do that again. It was awkward.”

“Cool.” Gina nodded, trying to sound unbothered and feeling herself fail greatly. She waited a moment before her follow up question, trying not to sound too needy. “A little birdy tells me you’ve been out with him again, though. Also, I’m referring to Charles, not a literal bird.”

“We go to the same gym and we go to the same spin class. He’s pretty cool, but in a non-sexy, Boyle kind of way.” Rosa shrugged.

Gina’s brain involuntarily imagined Rosa on an exercise bike in her leggings and sports bra, which wasn’t what Gina needed right now. 

“I can agree with you on the non-sexy part, but don’t you dare let Boyle know you think he’s even ‘kind of cool’. That will get to his head and he’ll be even more annoying.” Gina warned her. 

“Got it.” Rosa laughed.

Towards the end of their time together in the kitchen, Rosa was sat on the counter again, watching Gina cook. The feminist in her was telling her she shouldn’t be so attracted to a woman in the kitchen, but Gina cooking pasta was somehow really hot. She was a woman on a mission, multitasking with two pans on the stove while somehow grating cheese and chopping fresh basil. She looked powerful, which is how Rosa justified it.

“You want to stop staring at me with your big, beautiful eyes and drain the water from the pasta?” Gina asked, putting a fork of pasta in her mouth to make sure it was cooked properly. 

“Sure.” Rosa agreed, pushing back on the side of the counter and gracefully landing on the tiles. 

Rosa and Gina served the dinner, Amy running in to help set the table at the very end. Gina was surprisingly an amazing chef and she spent most of the dinner getting compliments from everyone as they stuffed their face with pasta. Rosa loved the food and could have carried on eaten until she looked six months pregnant, but her favourite part was sitting next to Gina and being able to witness her huge smile and her warm laugh. Part of Rosa felt like some of the smiles were just for her, but she couldn’t let herself get an even bigger crush on her closest friend.

When Holt had joined the vacation, everyone knew there wasn’t enough room for him, but nobody said anything. Boyle’s wife’s beach house was pretty big and had enough beds or long sofas for everyone except Holt. Amy calmly brought it up over dinner, making sure Holt wouldn’t feel excluded as he had before.

“Me and Gina can share. We've been having sleepovers since we were kids, so its not a huge deal.” Jake shrugged between bites.

“Sweet offer, Jacob, but didn’t you promise Charles you’d share the twin beds with him, like, a month ago?” Gina reminded him and heard Charles release a sigh of relief.

“Like Bert and Ernie, right, Jakey?” Charles commented, grinning like a six-year-old. Jake just nodded, but Gina could tell he was secretly looking forward to their sleepover, and a six-year-old at heart.

“Gina can just sleep with me.” Rosa offered, her eyes opening wide a second later once she’d realised what she just said.

“Bit forward, Rosie.” Gina winked and stuck her tongue out, pretend (or possibly real) flirting with the woman sat beside her.

Rosa just rolled her eyes.

“You know what I mean. It just makes the most sense and we can separate the double bed with pillows or something if you want.” Rosa offered.

“Oh, girl, this is why you’re the best detective.” After complimenting Rosa, Gina looked over to Amy to see how she had reacted to the ‘best detective’ bit. Instead of seeing Amy annoyed, she saw second-hand heartbreak in her eyes and remembered why Gina even followed through with cooking in the first place. 

Sharing a bed with Rosa would be absolutely fine. Best friends shared beds all the time without it being sexual at all. That’s what Gina kept telling herself, anyway.

Rosa was also worrying, and also keeping it all to herself. She feared she gave herself away being so forward with the offer of sharing, but as the day progressed and she had a drink or two, she stopped worrying. The two women spent the next few hours stealing glances at each other from across the room until someone brought up the hot tub and everyone went to get changed in their rooms.

“I’ll just get changed in the bathroom, down the hall, if that works best for you.” Rosa mumbled, uncharacteristically nervous. She and Gina were both stood in their bedroom and referring to a room with one double bed as ‘theirs’ made Rosa’s heart beat faster in her chest. 

“You can get changed here if you want. I promise I won't look.” Gina smiled, showing her sincerity. “plus, I’m pretty sure I saw Scully use that bathroom about an hour ago, so I’d be avoiding it like the plague if I were you, girl.”

Gina tried to suggest changing together casually and managed to bring it up without choking or stuttering, which she could only thank her god, Rihanna, for. There was absolutely no way she would invade Rosa’s privacy and look at her, no matter how much Gina thought she replicated a work of art in the Louvre, or somewhere equally as fancy. Seeing her like that would be meaningless and cross boundaries that Gina would never cross.

“That make’s sense.” Rosa shrugged, like Gina, trying to play it cool.

Both women took a side of the bed, their side preferences aligning so perfectly that they didn’t need to speak. From there, they each got changed into their swimwear, facing the wall.

“You ready, Rosie?” Gina asked after she’d finished getting into her swimsuit and sat on the edge of the bed to check her twitter.

“Would you be able to help me with tying the strap of my bikini? I keep getting it stuck in my hair?” Rosa hesitated, not believing what she’d asked. “Wait, it doesn’t matter-“

“Of course, I’ll help. What else would I do with these beautiful, delicate fingers?” Gina agreed, getting up and slowly turning towards Rosa, giving her time to stop her if she changed her mind.

Rosa was mostly still facing the wall. She was aware that Gina was facing her direction, but not aware that Gina was putting all her strength into keeping her jaw closed. Gina felt like she was looking at a bikini model from a glossy magazine she had bought and hidden in her room as a teenager, only Rosa could put every single one of those models to shame. 

Realising she had something to do, Gina went to stand behind Rosa and help her faster her top. 

Rosa shivered when she felt Gina’s warm breath on the back of her neck, and she wished Gina would move her lips a couple of inches closer. She tried not to worry about visibly shivering, her mind too distracted to worry, anyway. Gina Linetti was way too close to her, both wearing far too little clothing and her fingers occasionally brushed against Rosa’s bath while she tied the bow. Their closeness probably only lasted twenty seconds, tops, but it felt like longer, both savouring every second. 

Rosa turned, thanking Gina and seeing her in her swimsuit for the first time. Rosa knew she had a distinct panic face when she saw attractive women, and she hoped it hadn’t made an appearance today. Similar thoughts were spinning through Gina’s head, with her hoping Rosa hadn’t seen her eyes quickly focus on her chest before staring at the floor. 

“So, we should probably go and see if anyone’s drowned yet.” Gina croaked, her voice somehow disappearing in a matter of minutes. She could barely get her words out, but to be fair, she had just seen the woman she loved in a black bikini for the first time.

“I feel like I need to grab a shirt or something to cover all of this up.” Rosa said, gesturing to her chest and stomach area, which Gina took as a free pass to take another look.

“You look hot, girl.” Gina added an exaggerated wink, hoping it would mask how incredibly attracted she was to the woman before her and make it seem like a supportive, friendly comment. 

“You too.” Rosa looked at the floor before reaching for a white t-shirt.

“Obviously, but not as hot as you look, because I planned ahead and realised Hitchcock would end up seeing me in any swimwear I wore. There is no way that dummy is seeing me in a sexy bikini.” 

Rosa laughed, wishing she’d had Gina’s mindset.

They went downstairs together, Rosa bringing a bottle of wine she’d packed with her. Everyone was already in the hot tub once they got outside, so Rosa and Gina just slotted onto the spaces left. They were opposite each other, and Rosa used this to her advantage, looking over at Gina every time she laughed and showed off her beautiful teeth and scrunched her nose. Gina did something similar, smiling in Rosa’s direction every time she saw Rosa almost smile. Rosa almost smiling was equivalent to anyone else laughing so hard they choked on hot tub bubbles. 

One by one, members of the squad started exiting the hot tub and making their way back inside, leaving Gina and Rosa outside together with what was left of a bottle of white wine. They talked, laughed, and non-subtly checked each other out through the water until Amy brought them towels and told them it was getting late. Amy was acting like such a mom, caring for them and giving Gina knowing looks, but Gina could let it go, just this once. 

The next few hours were tiring, strategically trying to avoid Holt with a weird shift setup that reminded Gina of scheduling everyone’s work hours. In the end, everything went wrong, but at least Gina could spend all of her time with Rosa from that point forward. It was a great evening, joking with Holt instead of feeling uncomfortable. Everyone was a little tipsy and tired when midnight came around, having had a pretty early start that morning. 

Some people were tipsier than others, verging on drunk, and ‘some people’ meant just Gina and Amy. Amy had gone to bed hours earlier, Gina being sober enough to look after her at that point, but after that, Gina was back to drinking and dancing with her boss. In the end, Rosa was the one looking after Gina, and she had absolutely no problems with that. 

“I’m telling you, you don’t need to put your pretty little hand on my back, Rosie. I am fine!” Gina persisted as Rosa helped her stumble up the stairs to their room.

“I’m just looking after you, G.” Rosa laughed, not fully sober herself. They were grown women who knew how to handle their alcohol, but they usually had beers rather than entire bottles of wine.

“Aw, you called me ‘G’. That’s adorable.” Gina stopped, reaching to put her hand on Rosa’s cheek, but slipping instead.

“Don’t die on me.” Rosa rolled her eyes, forcing Gina up the last few steps.

The bathroom was free, so Rosa excused herself to get changed there while Gina got into her pyjamas in the room. When Rosa returned, Gina was wearing leopard print shorts and a Beyoncé tour shirt, sat cross-legged in the centre of the bed.

“I drank some water, I’m feeling fine now.” Gina announced, and it was somewhat believable.

“That’s good.”

“It is good.” Gina nodded before letting out a small burp, then laughing at herself. “You sleep in your bra? Are you insane, Miss Rosa Diaz?”

“Quit staring at my boobs, Linetti.” Rosa retorted, but with a smirk on her face, which shut Gina up for a little while.

“Do you want me to make a little pillow wall or something?” Gina asked as they both got into their sides of the bed, making sure they didn’t get too close to the middle.

“It doesn’t really matter to me but do whatever you want. You don’t need to worry about me spooning you. I won't touch you.” Rosa assured her. Little did she know she was promising not to do the things that Gina wanted her to do most.

“We don’t need a wall taking up space. We’re grown up, independent women.” Gina nodded, before turning her bedside light off.

“Night, Gina.” Rosa said into the darkness.

“Goodnight.” Gina replied.

\---

It’s hard to follow through on promises while you’re asleep and unaware of everything. Gina woke up to sunlight streaming through the window and a warm arm stretched across her stomach. Realising it was Rosa’s, she subconsciously snuggled in closer. She was still half asleep, so she couldn’t be blamed.

Rosa woke up a few minutes later, not knowing whether Gina was awake or not. She wanted to move away from Gina as she was afraid that she’d crossed a line, but she also didn’t want to wake Gina up too early. She settled on slowly dethatching herself but was interrupted when she was halfway through.

“Good morning, Rosa.” Gina said in her adorable, hoarse morning voice, turning to face Rosa in the double bed, still close to her. 

“Hey, I’m sorry for-“

“Don’t apologise, it was nice.” Gina smiled.

There was absolutely no awkwardness between them, which both Gina and Rosa were relieved about. Whether things between them changed or not, they were still going to be best friends first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been SO BUSY WITH COURSEWORK RECENTLY being an art student is a lot of work lol but i hope you all like this chapter. it's quite a bit longer than usual because this episode is just so important and cute I LOVE DIANETTI SO MUCH OKAY


	13. rosa's going to make this cold her bitch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OKAY I KNOW THE ROAD TRIP EPISODE IS BEFORE THE BEACH HOUSE EPISODE BUT I FORGOT AND GOT TOO EXCITED ABOUT THE SHARING A BED TROPE OKAY SO I'VE WRITTEN IT AFTERWARDS PLS STILL ACCEPT ME

Since being at the beach house, Rosa hadn’t brought up the fact she and Gina had woken up almost cuddling, the bare skin of their legs touching, and Rosa’s arm curled around Gina’s body. The fact that Rosa has never felt that content lying in bed with another person before terrified her and forgetting about it was the only way she thought their friendship could last.

Gina, on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking about that morning. Sometimes she wants to hit herself for telling Rosa it was nice instead of shutting up for once in her life, but other times she wants to hit herself for not saying more and inching herself to her warm, sleepy best friend. That morning is something Gina thinks about most nights as she falls asleep in her lonely apartment, but she knows she can’t be the one to bring it up. Although Rosa had willingly stayed and held Gina for a long time until they head Charles ringing a weird bell to wake everyone up, Rosa hadn’t actually said anything, and Gina didn’t want to seem too forward. Sure, she flirted with Rosa and called her hot at every opportunity she had, but this was different. This was real, deep, personal stuff. 

Despite not bringing it up, they continued getting to sit closer together than they’d never let anyone else sit to them. Gina had rested her head on Rosa’s shoulder countless times, and Rosa has done the same to Gina if she’s been slouched enough. 

The day that Amy and Jake went to pick up a perp and stay overnight somewhere far away was going to be a good day for Gina, as she wasn’t going to have Amy’s sympathetic, puppy dog eyes staring at her every time she was within a metre of Rosa. Her gaze didn’t stop Gina, but it was just a harsh reminder of the fact she was madly in love with her presumably straight best friend. 

Rosa had woken up that morning feeling like shit. 99% of her wanted to turn off her alarm and hide under the covers, but the other 1% knew work was too important right now. The 1% was stronger and won when she started getting cold sweats, forcing her to get up and drag herself to the shower. Rosa wasn’t sure what happened between the shower and sitting in the briefing room that morning, but got there in one piece, so she didn’t care.

“Girl, you’re sick.” Gina sat down next to Rosa and put her hand on Rosa’s forehead while they waited for the room to fill up. Rosa was so weak and all she wanted to do was melt into Gina’s hand and have her friend stroke her hair while she rested, but somehow, she managed to continue sitting upright.

“I’m fine.” Rosa grunted, holding back a sneeze.

“Have you had any medicine?” Gina asked, moving her hand from Rosa’s forehead to push some stray hair behind her ears. If Rosa ignored how corpse-like she was currently feeling, she’d say her dreams were coming true.

“I don’t need to. I’m not sick.”

“No offence, Rosie, but you look like you’ve got the plague. You should be curled up in front of the tv watching Nancy Meyers movie with a bowl of soup.”

“I’m not sick.” Rosa said again.

The conversation ended when Holt entered, standing at the front to go through the plans for the day. 

Gina couldn’t really focus on her work today, which wasn’t a rare occurrence, but today it wasn’t because of twitter. The only think she’d tweeted all day was “my girl Rosa is sick. One like = one prayer.”, then she’d gone back to trying to make sure Rosa stopped trying to be such a badass and admitted she needed a break. 

Terry and Gina teamed up to try and help her, Terry insisting that his work could wait and helping Rosa so she didn’t fall behind on hers. In the end, he agreed to let Gina force Rosa to nap in one of the precinct’s many cupboards.

“I don’t need to sleep.” Rosa complained as Gina locked the door behind the two of them.

“Oh, Rosa, sweetie, you really do.” Gina made a makeshift bed out of the wolf blanket and travel pillow she got from under her desk. 

“Why are you always so nice to me?” Rosa asked, half asleep already. Gina was a little surprised at how quickly Rosa gave into her plan. She knew Rosa was currently high on whatever medicine she took, but still.

“Because you’re, like, my favourite person, Rosie.” Gina smiled at her friend, knowing she’d remember none of this. She couldn’t help but cup Rosa’s cheek as she sat beside her.

Rosa was lightly snoring in minutes and it took a little while for Gina to realise how creepy she looked smiling at Rosa as she slept. She reluctantly got up from her seated position on the floor and went back to her desk. 

Gina didn’t work hard often, but she was capable of it if she really needed to. She had strategically done the bare minimum in her job so she didn’t get any more responsibilities, and that meant she could technically speed work and get a whole day’s worth done in two hours. She decided that was what she was going to do so she could wake Rosa up and take her home early. Gina hated how she’d literally drop everything for Rosa Diaz, but it couldn’t be helped. 

Listening to Lady Gaga while she worked apparently made Gina more productive, and she was done within half an hour.

“Hey, captain.”

“Gina, hello. Is there something you need?” Holt asked, looking up from his paperwork.

“Rosa’s super sick and she’s scaring everyone with her nasty germs. I’ve finished going through all the stuff you gave me to do today, so I was wondering if I could take her home? She’s not safe to drive and I can come back afterwards if you want.” Gina asked, weirdly nervous. Every time she mentioned Rosa to Holt, she had flashbacks to the time he saw them dancing together and gave her a specific, yet vague look.

“I think you getting her home safely will be best. I saw her this morning using her desk chair as a mode of transport, which is not only a safety hazard, but something I expect she will be deeply embarrassed about.” Holt nodded.

“Cool, thanks, sir.” Gina turned to leave.

“Gina,” Holt called, making Gina swivel around again to face him. “Take care of her, okay?”

“I will.” Gina smiled, her heart sinking in her chest. Gina thought she was pretty good at hiding her feelings, but apparently not. 

Rosa was already awake when Gina opened the cupboard door. She was propped up a little bit, shivering under the blanket. Gina had never seen her look so weak and vulnerable.

Without thinking, Gina pulled her sweater off to give to her shivering friend, even though all Gina had underneath was a thin, white vest top. 

“Come on, I’m taking you home.” Gina said, helping Rosa put the sweater on before holding her sweaty hands and pulling her up from the floor.

“I have to interrogate-“

“Shut up.”

Gina borrowed one of the normal cars the detectives used to blend in when undercover, with Holt’s full support. 

“You can drive?” Rosa asked, shocked when they were about halfway to her apartment.

“It’s a little worrying that you didn’t ask that before you let me get behind the wheel.” Gina smirked, glancing at Rosa before looking back at the road. 

Gina hadn’t really looked after a sick person before. She’d heated some leftovers for her mom a couple of times when she lived at home, but since then she hadn’t been replied on by anyone. Being nice to people didn’t usually come so naturally, but as soon as Gina unlocked Rosa’s door for her, she was telling her to change into her pyjamas and get into bed while Gina cooked some homemade soup from whatever ingredients Rosa had in her kitchen. Once she’s finished, she left the pan on the side until Rosa felt like having something to eat and went to her friend’s room with some herbal tea. 

“I can’t decide if I’m hot or cold.” Rosa sounded frustrated, her voice still unnaturally high. She was sat in the centre of her bed, half dressed due to her confusing temperature. She wasn’t exposing herself, so Gina didn’t say anything.

“You’re, like, super sick, Rosie. It’ll probably be a bug and you’ll be fine in a day or two.” Gina assured her friend, handing her the mug. Rosa ended up under the covers with Gina sat next to her on top of the duvet, both watching a random movie Gina had put on the laptop. 

Neither were focusing too much on the movie. Rosa was too busy drifting in and out of sleep, then sneezing herself awake again, and Gina was just worrying. If she cared this much about a colleague, she feared how much she’d worry and care for her future kid or husband or wife. 

Before the movie was over, Rosa shot out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom.

“Rosa?” Gina called, following her.

Realising what was going on, Gina held Rosa’s wild curls back as Rosa threw up, using her second spare hand to lightly rub her back once all of her hair was out of the way.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Rosa said quietly, sitting on the bathroom floor and avoiding eye contact.

“Oh, shut up. I just want you to get better, you idiot.” Gina rolled her eyes.

“Holding my hair back is such a mom job.” Rosa sighed, getting up from the floor. She was feeling a little better and strangely felt her appetite coming back.

“Or a boyfriend job.” Gina winked. She wondered how Rosa could still look so beautiful when pale, sick, and having just thrown up.

Rosa blushed but blamed it on her weak immune system.

“I’m going to go and heat the soup up while you wash your face and stuff, okay?” Gina told Rosa as if she was reading her mind.

“Thank you.” Rosa smiled, grabbing Gina’s wrist before she left the room.

Rosa washed her face with one of her many face scrubs and brushed her teeth before being greeted by a bowl of hot vegetable soup on her counter.

“I made you a ‘Rosa’s going to make this cold her bitch’ soup.” Gina told her, passing a spoon as she did so.

“Another of your grandma’s Italian recipes?” 

“Nope, made this from scratch, so if it tastes awful, that’s why.”

It didn’t taste awful. It was one of the best soups Rosa had ever eaten. 

Rosa was so glad that Gina didn’t just drop her off and then go back to work or back to her own apartment. She felt selfish and disgustingly soft admitting this, but it felt so nice having Gina look after her. She was scared she’d said something about her feelings for Gina while she was delirious, but Gina hadn’t mentioned anything, so she tried to ignore that worry. 

It somehow got to 11 pm, and Rosa hadn’t even realised she and Gina had sat through almost half a season of Friends. The cold, that she definitely didn’t have, must have been affecting her concept of time. 

“Sorry, G, I didn’t realise it was so late. You can take the precinct car and drive home, if you want. I know the buses aren’t great at night and I’m sorry for ruining your day.” Rosa rambled.

“I’m staying over, silly.” Gina replied, unphased.

“Oh.”

“What, you thought I was going to leave you here, lonely, sick and helpless?” 

Rosa was thankful Gina stayed over. She didn’t wake up in the night or need anything, but it was nice going to sleep next to someone she knew cared for her, even if it was just as a friend. She didn’t hear Gina leaving the bed the next morning, only waking up when she felt Gina and the weight of a breakfast tray sink into the mattress.

“Breakfast and bed, if you’re feeling up for it.” Gina grinned, trying to help Rosa start her day in a good mood, little did she know that Rosa seeing Gina instantly put her in a good mood anyway.

“You didn’t need to look after me, you know.” Rosa said, sitting cross-legged opposite Gina in bed and eating breakfast with her.

“I know, I’m an angel, you don’t have to keep reminding me.”


	14. only engaged eight times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boyle-Linetti wedding

“I can't believe my mom is marrying Charles’ dad today. What did I do to deserve this?” Gina groaned, walking into the wedding venue with Rosa.

it was hours before the ceremony, but Rosa agreed to help Gina with everything and gave her a lift on the back of her motorcycle. One day Rosa was going to get too distracted by Gina’s hands wrapped around her waist and crash into something, but luckily that day hadn’t come yet.

“They seem happy.” Rosa commented, not wanting to take sides. 

“I know. It’s super gross.” Gina sighed 

Once inside, Gina disappeared within seconds, yelling at caterers and leaving Rosa stood awkwardly in the foyer. She stood for a little while, twisting a section of hair with her fingers until she saw a somewhat familiar face. 

“Rosie, right?” Darlene Linetti smiled. 

Rosa had to bite her lip to stop herself laughing at the fact she genuinely let Gina call her Rosie without threatening her with death. No other person in her life could get away with that. It was kind of cute that Gina had mentioned her to her family, she thought.

“Rosa, but yeah.” Rosa nodded. She could feel herself heating up, feeling like she needed to impress Darlene. It was a strange and unusual feeling. “Gina brought me to help with stuff, but I’m not really sure on what to do.”

“Oh, most of it is already organised. I think my Regina might have just wanted the company.” Darlene responded with a Charles style insinuating voice. Maybe it wasn’t so insane that a Linetti and Boyle were getting married today after all.

“She does like having people around to listen to her.” Rosa nodded.

“You know my daughter so well.” Darlene laughed, putting a hand on Rosa’s shoulder before excusing herself and going to get ready. 

Still hearing the distant sound of Gina yelling and realising she wasn’t coming back anytime soon, Rosa found a chair and sat on her phone, scrolling through twitter for a while. She had never been one for social media, preferring to keep her life more private, but Gina had made her an account a few months back and she loved seeing little thoughts and updates from her friend throughout the day.

“Hey, girl, come on.” Gina appeared again, suddenly, and was pulling Rosa up from the chair as she didn’t leave her for the best part of an hour. 

“Where are we going?” Rosa asked, letting Gina drag her into a room down the hall.

“We’re getting ready. I’m pretty sure Charles said he was going to make a wedding scrapbook - which makes me cringe - but our beautiful faces will literally be immortalised in the photos taken today.” Gina explained, stopping to emphasis ‘immortalised’ with hand gestures.

“You know every selfie you post online is out there forever and immortalised by the government?” Rosa raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you’re not fun. I don’t know why I like you so much.” Gina rolled her eyes.

Rosa felt butterflies and shivers up her arms at Gina’s comment and she prayed that Gina hadn’t somehow felt the shivers, as her hand was still gripping between her wrist and forearm tightly. 

They entered a circle shaped dressing room with long mirrors and soft chairs. Both of their dresses were hanging on a rail on one side of the room and it looked like something from a tv show. More specifically, a room from a Gilmore Girls episode Rosa had watched a week prior. 

“You brought your makeup in your bag, right?” Gina turned, realising she wouldn’t be able to lend Rosa her pale foundation if she’d forgotten.

“Yeah.” 

“Okay, good.”

Rosa couldn’t remember the last time she’d got ready with someone like this before. Sitting next to each Gina, both wearing fluffy robes that Darlene had left out for them, and putting on makeup in front of big, Hollywood style mirror was something Rosa hadn’t really done since ballet school, and even then she would have favoured quickly doing her makeup alone in the bathroom. Rosa couldn’t help but find little quirks about Gina’s makeup routine adorable, like how she gave up with makeup brushes in the end and used her fingers to apply half of her eyeshadow and how she scrunched her nose smiling as she applied her blush. The two women occasionally made eye contact in the mirrors, smiling and looking away with slight embarrassment when they did. 

Rosa felt like a teenager with a huge high school crush, only she didn’t even do that as a teenager. She was started to accept that her little crush on Gina may possibly be one of the biggest crushes she’d had in her entire life. 

“Can one of your girls help me with fastening my dress.” Darlene’s voice followed a knock at one of the doors.

At that moment, Rosa realised that her and Gina’s dressing room was attached to Gina’s mom’s, and Darlene probably overheard all of their chatter. Rosa blushed at the thought. They weren’t particularly flirtatious, but Rosa didn’t talk to anyone else in the way she spoke to Gina. She’d literally pour her heart out to her if she asked her to and said please.

Both Rosa and Gina went through to help, Rosa holding the dress still while Gina fastened the zip at the back that was too hard for Darlene to reach.

“My god, you both look gorgeous.” Darlene smiled at them afterwards.

“Hey, it’s your wedding day, it should be us saying that to you.” Rosa responded.

“Yeah, mom. You look fabulous.” Gina agreed.

“Well, I try my best.” Darlene pretended to be humble, and Rosa saw a glimpse of Gina in her. “I’m just so happy. I just gave up on finding the love of my life after I turned forty-five, you know? Like, I thought maybe I should just focus on other things in my life, but here I am marrying the sweetest guy I’ve ever met. I hope you’re both this happy one day.”

Both Rosa and Gina dross at Darlene’s last sentence, their eyes wide with panic. Of course, they weren’t facing each other, so only Darlene saw a mutual fear. 

There was a strange pause after that, and in the end, Gina dragged Rosa back into their own room to finish getting ready before everyone else arrived.

Rosa’s mind was still racing as she applied a final coat of eyeliner, making her eyes darker than usual. Gina’s mother had definitely been implying something, and implying her daughter had feelings for a woman meant that Darlene possibly knew Gina was attracted to women. These thoughts spiralled in Rosa’s brain for a while until she finally told herself to shut up and stop overthinking. By this point, she was completely ready and waiting outside the door until Gina was in her dress.

“Rosa, I might need a little help sipping my dress, too.” Gina called.

“You- You want me to come in?” Rosa stuttered, not knowing why.

“Yeah, hurry up.”

Rosa cautiously entered, not wanting to invade Gina’s privacy even though she’d said it was okay.

“I can't reach the zip.” Gina smiled awkwardly; her arms crossed to keep the front of her dress in place. Once the door was shut again, she turned. The zip was down, exposing her entire back. Rosa hasn’t thought too hard about whether backs were attractive or not until now, and she could confirm that they were, or at least Gina’s was. 

Not wanting to make things awkward, Rosa zipped her dress quickly, but accidentally brushed a fingertip on Gina’s spine. Gina’s breath hitched for a second at the feel of Rosa’s warm hand.

“I think we’re ready to go. I told people from work to arrive around now, so they’re probably outside.” Gina said, her voice slightly higher and faster than usual. She slipped her feet into her heels before disappearing out of the dressing room, beckoning Rosa to follow.

Before Rosa knew it, Gina was out of her sight again. She always felt a little bit better when she had Gina in her eye line. Leaving Gina to do whatever she needed to do, Rosa stuck with the rest of the squad, standing by as Amy made polite small talk with other guests on behalf of the whole group.

The ceremony was beautiful, and Rosa didn’t just think that because Gina was stood at the front near her mother, wearing a beautiful blue dress that looked like it was made especially for her. The only reason Rosa knew it wasn’t was because Gina had boasted about finding it for a third of the original price on eBay and entering a bidding war over it. Gina made eye contact with Rosa a couple of times, which made Rosa smile and look towards the bride and groom instead.

It wasn’t until the reception that Gina got to properly talk to any of the squad. She pretended to hate them half the time, but in reality, they were some of her closest friends.

“Hey, girl.” Gina said, sitting on an empty seat beside Amy. There was a separate table for the family of the bride and groom, but after a while, Charles got up to find Jake and Gina followed.

“Gina, blue really is your colour.” 

“You’ve managed to drown four drinks already? I don’t need flirty Amy right now,” Gina rolled her eyes. “And I claim every colour, except beige… actually, I look pretty good in beige too.”

“How come I can never compliment anyone without being told I’m drunk?” Amy complained.

“Yeah, whatever, Ames. Have you seen Rosa?” Gina asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Gina didn’t know if she’d be able to survive the evening around Rosa while she was wearing that gorgeous off-the-shoulder dress, especially with alcohol on the table, but the alternative was watching her mom get her lipstick all over Charles’ dad’s face, so Gina was willing to take the risk.

“Why do you ask? Do you want to kiss her hair in front of me and then not let me bring it up? Oh, wait, you already did that.” Amy replied.

“You sound like a six-year-old.”

“You should say something.”

Gina took a breath, realising she was going to say something she’d regret. 

“What do you want me to do, Amy? Admit I’m super into my straight best friend and ruin everything between us?” Gina practically hissed. 

Amy was silent, her eyes wide.

“I’m sorry, Gina. I’ll drop it.”

“It’s fine, Ames. I’m sorry I snapped, it’s just nobody knows, and I thought if I ignored it, it would go away, you know?”

“Yeah, I know the feeling.” Amy bit her lip, looking over at Jake by the buffet, trying to make Charles laugh by putting grapes in his cheek.

“He’s literally obsessed with you.”

“You think?”

“Amy, I’ve known Jake my entire life. He likes you, a lot.”

Amy blushed and Gina gestured for her to go over to Jake when he moved away from the fruit and closer to the dancefloor. Amy almost skipped away, leaving Gina alone at the table.

Gina sat, resting her head in her hands and looking over at her mom dancing in her glittery dress. She could only dream about being that happy one day.

“’Sup.” Rosa, out of nowhere, slid into the chair next to Gina’s, interrupting her train of thoughts. Rosa’s presence startled Gina, as Rosa had been the exact person on her mind. 

“Hey, girl.” Gina smiled with her teeth; the smile that made Rosa feel like her heart was melting inside her ribcage. 

“I haven’t really seen you since we were getting ready before the wedding. You okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I’m super happy. I thought it would be way more gross seeing my mom kiss a Boyle.”

“It’s not like it’s something you’ve never done.” Gina turned to scowl at Rosa and was met with her smirking beside her.

“That’s not funny. Never bring that up again.” 

“I’m sorry, Gina, but it’s so easy to wind you up.”

Rosa realised that mocking Gina for sleeping with Charles was funny until it hit her that, for the first time in her life, she was incredibly jealous of her awkward colleague.

With Gina silently forgiving Rosa, the two of them sat together for a little while, sipping cocktails from the open bar and guessing how drunk random wedding guests were on a scale from 1-10. It was a little while before they both realised, they were the only people under sixty who were still sat down.

“Do you want to dance or something?” Rosa suggested, trying to make it sound casual. She was only suggesting the two of us stand near each other while they move from one foot to the other on the edge of the dance floor, but it was somehow still nerve-racking. 

“Sure.” Gina smiled. Without thinking twice, she held Rosa’s hand and dragged her behind her to where the majority of the guests were.

It didn’t take much convincing from Gina to make Rosa participate in overly enthusiastic air guitar dancing to whatever song Charles’ dad had requested. Gina was the only person on the earth that Rosa was willing to embarrass herself for. She could hear a stranger laugh from behind, but not one cell in her body cared. She was dancing with her best friend and she was happier than she’d been in a long time. 

The music gradually changed to slower, some (Gina) may say, sappier songs. Pairs were formed and some people were practically slow dancing. 

As part of their overly dramatic dancing, Rosa had held Gina’s hand to spin her around, their fingers interlocking and their palms fitting together perfectly. The two women didn’t really break apart after that. After the twirling, Gina had loosely wrapped her free arm around Rosa’s side, and they stayed that way for a while. For some reason, it didn’t feel weird at all, and having their heads closer together meant they could talk without having to shout over the music.

“I feel like I’ll never be with someone worth marrying.” Gina said at some point.

“Haven’t you been engaged, like, eight times?” Rosa frowned, but Gina couldn’t really see. Their heads were close, but they were looking over each other’s shoulders. 

“But never married. There’s a difference.”

Gina paused, not sure whether she wanted to say anything more about her past relationships. After a few seconds, she took a breath. It was not or never. 

“The last time I was engaged was the day same-sex marriage was legalised. I’d only been with the woman for a couple of months, but we were drunk and excited about the fact it was even an option.” Gina confessed. 

Rosa said nothing but squeezed Gina’s hand a little tighter. 

Gina was instantly glad she’d said something, feeling accepted and appreciated and knowing she had one less thing to hide from the person she was probably closest with in the world at that point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so long to update this. I hope you liked it and please let me know what you thought of the chapter <3


	15. thinking out loud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gina gets two tickets to see Beyoncé

It was Gina’s birthright to win the Beyoncé tickets, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t overthinking asking someone to go with her on Sunday. She knew exactly who she was going to ask, and by this point, everyone who knew her could have probably guessed. It was Rosa. It would always be Rosa.

Gina hadn’t formally asked Rosa if she was free, but they both wordlessly agreed on the plans. Too much of their relationship was saying things without words. Rosa and Gina must knew each other so well.

It had been a long week at work and only Gina and Jake were down for hanging out at Shaw’s after work, so the two of them decided to just buy a cheap bottle of wine and watch a movie at Jake’s apartment. Gina agreed to not tell anyone that Jake chose wine over a beer as long as Jake promised not to force her into watching die hard for the four hundredth time. 

“Hey, you know my friend? The guy who’s an understudy in one of the Broadway shows and you said was a less hot, more age appropriate Zac Efron?” Jake asked, coming back from the kitchen with some snacks. They ended up just making fun of a nature documentary instead of watching a movie, so it was fine to chat over it.

“Yeah, I think.” Gina shrugged, picking up her half empty glass of wine.

“He’s probably free on Sunday and he likes Beyoncé if you need a date or something.” 

“I’m fine, Jake.” Gina rolled her eyes, finishing the remaining wine in one go.

“When was the last time you went on a date?”

“Jake, drop it. I said I’m fine.”

“It doesn’t have to be the concert, but why don’t you go out with Paul another time?” Jake sat down next to Gina on the couch again. 

“I don’t want to, and I’d never date a guy called Paul, anyway.” 

“Why are you being so stubborn? I just want you to be happy, Gina.”

“Drop it.” Gina repeated.

This wasn’t the first time Jake had tried to set Gina up recently. She hadn’t been in many serious relationships in her life, so she didn’t expect anyone to notice she hadn’t been on a date in almost a year, but Jake had realised a few weeks and subtly brought it up a lot. 

“I know we made jokes about you dating Rosa at first, but seriously, this isn’t like you.”

“Drop it.” Gina said for the third time, gritting her teeth. She was annoyed and bringing up the fact she had the love life of a nun right now wasn’t helping.

“What happened to your plan of marrying a movie star and having a glitter covered family by 40?” Jake didn’t stop.

Gina reacted without even thinking. She was annoyed and a little tipsy.

“Jake, I’m ridiculously, stupidly in love with Rosa and I don’t need this right now.” Gina snapped. 

It was a few seconds before Gina managed to take another breath. 

“I’ve never said that out loud before.” Gina admitted after a long pause, her throat dry and her voice quiet. 

“Gina, I’m so sorry.” Jake moved closer, putting his arm around her. 

Out of nowhere, Gina burst into tears. She never usually let herself cry in front of other people, but Jake was an exception. 

Jake held Gina close as she sobbed into his t-shirt. She was embarrassed because feelings were embarrassing, but she couldn’t stop. 

“Saying it out loud just makes it seem so real, you know? Like, before I felt like I could try and convince myself I just loved being her friend, but that’s not the whole truth.” Gina said, sitting up and wiping her eyes as her sobbing calmed. “God, this is so embarrassing.” 

“Don’t be embarrassed, Gina. I’m so sorry for trying to pressure you into dating.”

“Dating kind of sucks when you can’t stop thinking about someone else.” Gina laughed, even though nothing was funny, leaning forward to grab the wine from the coffee table. She didn’t bother pouring herself a glass and just drank it straight from the bottle.

“You know I love you like a sister and Rosa is one of my closest friends, but do you think it might be easier if you had some time away from her?” Jake asked, 

“When we’re together, it’s not like all I can think about it grabbing her face and kissing it. I’m just happiest when I’m with Rosa, whatever we’re doing.” 

“Oh shit, you really are in love with her.”

“I know.” 

The two childhood best friends sat, drank and talked for a little longer before Gina decided it was time to leave.

“Please don’t mention this to anyone, Jake. Especially not Rosa.” Gina added before she opened the door.

“I won’t say anything, don’t worry. And I'm always here if you need to talk or vent.”

“I probably won’t but thank you anyway.” Gina hugged Jake before leaving to get her train.

When she was back in her apartment again, alone, her tears all came back. They fell down her face slowly as she texted Rosa to confirm their plans. Rosa, of course, replied instantly saying she’d pick her up on Sunday evening. Gina didn’t even know why she started crying again, but she cried herself to sleep that night.

—-

Gina spent most of her Saturday at dance practice and her Sunday grocery shopping and cleaning her apartment until it was time to get ready for the concert.

Rosa picked Gina up at 5 o’clock, giving them time to grab something to eat and get a semi-decent spot in the line. 

“Wow.” Rosa absentmindedly commented as Gina opened the door.

Gina was wearing a tight black leather skirt that stopped mid-thigh with a Beyoncé t-shirt. her hair was curled and she’d gone for a dramatic eyeliner look with red lipstick. Rosa had seen Gina dressed up before, but that didn’t mean she’d ever get over it. Gina was probably the most attractive person Rosa had ever met and that was something she had only recently accepted. 

“Not so bad yourself, Rosie.” Gina resounded, looking her up and down. Gina’s eyes lingered on Rosa’s purple lips the neckline of her somewhat revealing top for longer than she should have.

“You ready?” Rosa asked, trying not to stare at Gina too much.

“Let me just grab my bag.” Gina said before disappearing into her bedroom, leaving Rosa stood leaning on the doorframe. 

Gina and Rosa got the bus to the venue, so there really wasn’t a good reason for Rosa to pick Gina up from her house other than the fact she missed her after the day they spent apart. After getting to the place, Rosa introduced Gina to a pizza place around the corner before going to wait for the concert.

Rosa had never been overly interested in Beyoncé before, other than having a few songs in her workout playlist, but seeing Gina excited made Rosa happier than any singer or performance could. 

They had pretty good tickets so they could see the stage without Beyoncé looking like a dot in the distance. 

“Come on, Rosa.” Gina almost screamed with excitement, pushing past people to get to their seats. Somewhere along the journey, the crowds of people get bigger, and Gina held out her hand for Rosa to hold. Rosa grabbed it instantly. She gasped quietly at Gina’s touch, but the chaos around them meant that the reaction went unnoticed. Gina held Rosa’s hand tight and guided her.

Neither Gina nor Rosa wanted to let go. Their hands fit perfectly together, and both would have argued that the other’s was warmer. Rosa found herself slowly caressing Gina’s wrist with her thumb, but thankfully Gina didn’t bring it up once they finally broke apart.

To anyone looking in on their relationship, Gina and Rosa had clearly both fallen for each other. Whether it was intentional or not, they both flirted with each other and weren’t great at hiding their feelings, they were both oblivious to the other’s actions. 

Rosa and Gina sat and talked until the music started, only instead of them both talking Gina just giddily talked about random subjects while Rosa watched her. The fact that Rosa wanted to spend all of her spare time with Gina, even if it was just to hear her vent, scared her. It had been a while since Gina came out to Rosa and Rosa hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Falling for a straight girl was bad, but somehow falling for someone who liked women but just not her hurt more. At least with a straight girl, she couldn’t really blame herself for being the reason the feelings were unrequited. 

Rosa zoned out for a while until Gina got up and started screaming

Beyoncé, someone adored by millions, was in the same room as Rosa, but she spent more time staring at her stupid, gorgeous, idiot, hot, annoying, beautiful co-worker. About halfway through the concert, Rosa knew that Gina had noticed. Gina had stolen smiles from Rosa and Rosa hadn’t even tried to pretend she wasn’t looking in her direction already. 

“That was a good concert. Thanks for inviting me.” Rosa said to Gina as they were leaving the venue, Gina’s smile still wide. 

“Girl, you weren’t even watching the concert. I saw you.” Gina laughed, linking arms with Rosa. There was a cool evening breeze, and that what Rosa blamed her shiver for when Gina’s bare skin pressed against hers. 

Gina rested her head on Rosa’s shoulder as they waited for their taxi. It wasn’t even discussed that they were staying the night at Rosa’s; that’s how frequent their slumber parties had become. At this point, Gina had a spare shirt and toothbrush permanently at Rosa’, and vice versa.

“Goodnight, Rosie.” Gina said, still smiling through the dark over an hour later. 

“Night, Gina.” Rosa responded before silence. Rosa fell asleep to the sound of Gina’s light snoring and the thoughts of spending every night for the rest of her life beside Gina. It was only in Rosa’s half-asleep state that she fully accepted her feelings for the best person in her life, and by the morning she usually blamed it on a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so sorry that this took so long for me to update!! i'm really busy with school at the moment but i only have another month of it left so hopefully i'll actually finish this story one day
> 
> let me know what you thought <3


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